Sounding the Troposphere From Space: A New Era for Atmospheric Chemistry

The troposphere, the lowest portion of the atmosphere, from Earth's surface to about 14 km, is a difficult region to probe from space. It is also an important region scientifically and for the welfare of the human race. So despite the difficulty, tropospheric sounding is a very important activity, and in the last 15 years or so, significant progress has been made. We are now able to derive tropospheric distributions of aerosols, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and some other constituents from satellite data.