Vertical resolution of upward-looking atmospheric remote sensors—I. Performance of hypothetical instruments with well-behaved input kernels

In a new program which performs a Backus-Gilbert analysis of the output kernels from the input kernels of any hypothetical remote sensor, Conrath's method for calculating trade-off curves has been shortened and the problem of normalization of truncated input kernels has been addressed. When evaluating the performance of remote sensors at the design stage, it is useful to transform the units of the input kernels into those of the output, and a method for treating this transformation has been formalized. We also show that when output kernels are selected for maximum signal-to-noise ratio and the input kernels have a limited vertical range, the output kernels move towards the centre of the input range. This conclusion is not a property of the sensor being analysed.

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