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A recursive algorithm was developed to invert spectrally resolved earth limb radiance profiles representing the non‐local thermodynamic equilibrium altitude regime and species/tangent heights that are optically thin. It was used to infer vertical distributions of temperature and excited NO density from data measured by the Spectral Infrared Rocket Experiment in the NO fundamental band near 5.3 µm. The solution for excited NO density was used to compute atmospheric cooling rates for the 5.3‐µm band and the de‐excitation rate constant ko for the reaction NO* + O → NO + O.

A technique is described for computing the aureole radiance field about a point source in a medium that absorbs and scatters according to an arbitrary phase function. When applied to an isotropic source in a homogenous medium, the method uses a double-integral transform which is evaluated recursively to obtain the aureole radiances contributed by successive scattering orders, as in the Neumann solution of the radiative transfer equation. The normalized total radiance field distribution and the variation of flux with field of view and range are given for three wavelengths in the uv and one in the visible, for a sea-level model atmosphere assumed to scatter according to a composite of the Rayleigh and modified Henyey-Greenstein phase functions. These results have application to the detection and measurement of uncollimated uv and visible sources at short ranges in the lower atmosphere.

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An algorithm is described for retrieving vertical profiles of a non‐LTE radiator (lower and upper state densities) and temperature from a spectrally resolved profile of infrared limb radiance. The limb radiance profile integrated over an optically thin line or region of the spectrum can be expressed as an Abel integral equation that may be solved for the vertical profile of volume emission rate. The volume emission rate profiles thus obtained from two or more thin spectral lines or regions representing a single species are used to solve for the vertical profiles of translational temperature and excited state molecular density. These two solutions and the limb radiance profile for nonthin spectral lines or regions are used in a nonlinear recursion scheme to obtain the species vibrational temperature profile. Results obtained in a numerical simulation using the υ2 band of CO2 are presented to demonstrate the method and, in particular, the convergence properties of the relaxation technique for recovery of vibrational temperature.