An assessment of OH airglow interference on the remote sensing of stratospheric HC1 via limb sounding in the near-I.R.

Chemiluminescent emission from the formation of vibrationally excited OH at an altitude of approximately 85 km presents a barrier to Earth limb measurements of near-infrared emissions originating in the stratosphere. High resolution measured spectra of OH airglow in the region of interest have not been reported, and thus it is difficult to assess its impact on moderately high resolution Earth limb spectroscopy capable of looking between strong OH lines. Low resolution rocket-borne spectrometer Earth limb measurements of OH airglow arc mathematically inverted to recover vibrational state populations that are used to simulate a higher resolution spectrum in the neighbourhood of 2843cm^-1, Implications for remote sensing HCI are presented.