Inversion of infrared limb emission measurements for temperature and trace gas concentrations

Limb emission measurements are characterized by sharp weighting functions at high altitudes, and for temperature determinations, strongly nonlinear dependence of the weighting function on the temperature. Several methods for inverting this type of measurement have been described and used, including iterative, statistical, nonlinear and approximate direct approaches. These approaches are described and advantages and disadvantages of each are outlined.