some comments on the use of infrared radiometry for remote atmospheric probing

A critique is presented of the lead paper by L.D. Kaplan on infrared radiometry. The following topics are analyzed: the extent to which the desirable thermal resolution of the lower troposphere can be achieved, the effects of complex cloud structure on infrared data, the effective weighting function if linearization is possible, remote sounding from below the atmosphere, first-guess fields and operational techniques to blend satellite infrared data into a mix of data from various meteorological systems, a simple inversion procedure for thermal structure, and problems arising from cloud and haze layers of variable amount and emissivity.