GLObal limb Radiance Imager for the Atmosphere (GLORIA): Scientific objectives Original Research Article

The GLObal limb Radiance Imager for the Atmosphere (GLORIA) is a joint proposal of Forschungszentrum Jülich and Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany. The instrument will provide for the first time a detailed global picture of the spatial structure of the Upper Troposphere/Lower Stratosphere region (UTLS), which plays a crucial role for the climate system. A unique combination of unprecedented spatial resolution and relatively large altitude coverage will tie processes in the UTLS region to the residual mean circulation, thereby providing detailed information on atmospheric dynamics. In particular, the instrument will demonstrate that novel information on small-scale atmospheric dynamics (e.g. gravity-wave momentum flux) can be obtained from space observations, which significantly improves the predictive capabilities of climate models and long-term weather forecasts. To achieve its objectives, GLORIA will use the first two-dimensional detector array flown in space for global limb-observations in the mid-infrared region. The detector array provides 2000 simultaneous limb-views in the altitude region from 5 to 65 km. Moderate spectral resolution is achieved by utilisation of a Michelson interferometer, which allows for measurements of atmospheric temperature fields, clouds parameters, aerosols, water vapour, ozone, and about 10 other trace species. Moreover, the first global observations of gravity-wave momentum fluxes will be obtained from GLORIA temperature observations.