OSS Radiative Transfer Method Performance in Real Time Atmosphere Characterization from Satellite Sounding and Imaging Data

The optimal spectral sampling (OSS) method is a rapid and accurate technique for numerical modeling of narrow-band transmittances in media with non-homogeneous thermodynamic properties containing a mixture of absorbing gases with variable concentrations. The method was initially designed for the modeling of radiances measured by satellite or aircraft-borne sensors in the infrared and microwave and is particularly well suited for remote sensing applications and for the assimilation of satellite observations in numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. In this paper we provide a brief description of the method and discuss its accuracy and computational performance in the context of retrieval of atmospheric parameters from sounding and imaging sensor (e.g. AIRS and MODIS) observations. Both clear and cloudy conditions are addressed.