Simultaneous retrieval of optical depths and scattering phase functions in Titan's atmosphere from Huygens/DISR data

In January 2005, the Huygens probe will descent through Titan's atmosphere and the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) will perform upward and downward looking observations at various spectral ranges and spatial resolutions. One of the subinstruments, the Upward Looking Visible Spectrometer (ULVS), measures the total downward radiation flux including the direct solar beam and also, with a shadow bar over the Sun, the diffuse downward flux. The intensity of the direct solar beam and thus the optical depth can be calculated from the difference of these two measurements. But 10degrees wide shadow bar also obscures the Solar Aureole Imager (SA) and therefore removes a considerable fraction of the diffuse downward radiation. This fraction can be estimated taking into account the brightness distribution of the SA which is estimated with the Titan Inverse Radiation Model (TIRM). Input to the model are a first guess of the optical depth in dependence on the altitude calculated directly from ULVS measurements and data from another DISR subinstrument, the Solar Aureole Imager SA imager. By assimilating the sparse SA data, TIRM yields a consistent estimate of the scattering phase function and the complete radiance field in dependence on the altitude. By iteratively correcting the initial optical depth estimation using the resultant radiance field and passing it again to TIRM, the model is used to simultaneously solve for optical depths and scattering phase functions. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.