Retrievability of stratospheric aerosol properties by the MIPAS-Envisat Limb Sounder

Broad-band high resolution mid-IR limb emission spectra will be measured by the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) on the European research satellite Envisat. The presence of stratospheric aerosol is expected to cause an enhanced continuum signal in the spectra which can be used to retrieve aerosol properties. The accuracy of the retrieval of spectral extinction coefficients in dedicated microwindows is estimated on the basis of simulated radiance spectra. The feasibility of inference of microphysical aerosol parameters from retrieved spectral extinction coefficients is investigated on the basis of Mie calculations and the estimated uncertainties of spectral extinction coefficients. In this paper a quantitative error analysis of microphysical aerosol parameters is presented for different typical stratospheric aerosol loadings