Stratospheric layer thicknesses from TIROS-N SSU data

Abstract

Data from Stratospheric Sounding Unit (SSU) on board TIROS-N satellite received at ISTRAC, SHAR via VHF telemetry has been used in a preliminary attempt to derive stratospheric layer thicknesses which are useful to generate upper air constant pressure charts for this purpose hand calculations have been done using standard regression co-efficient for two selected scan lines with proper calibration. The preprocessing aspects of demultiplexing, calibration, limb correction and earth location etc have been done manually to validate the methodology before Its computerisation various steps Involved in the retrieval of stratospheric layer thicknesses from the raw TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) telemetry data pertaining to SSU are briefly explained In this paper and the preliminary results obtained on two selected lines of a TIROS-N pass are presented here.