The Ozone and Aerosol Fine Structure experiment: Observing the fine structure of ozone and aerosol distribution in the atmosphere from the Salyut 7 Orbiter: 1. Introduction and the occultation experiment

The Ozone and Aerosol Fine Structure (OZAFS) experiment, conducted on the Soviet Salyut 7 orbiting station in September 1985, was intended to study ozone and aerosol fine structure in the atmosphere. The experimental technique was to combine the observations of the distribution of species from the attenuation of radiation on tangent routes with photographic observations of the Earth's twilight limb. The photographic method used for measuring the vertical distribution of attenuating atmospheric components from spacecraft does not call for sophisticated instrumentation. An absorption method was used for the experiment, and a complete mathematical model of this method was constructed. The model associated directly measured values with atmospheric characteristics of interest. An algorithm of the measured data processing was used to obtain minimal errors of the ozone and aerosol retrieval on the basis of the complete model of the experiment, which contains measuring errors. This method makes it possible to reconstruct ozone profiles and aerosol extinction profiles in the stratosphere with low errors (5 to 10%),.and high spatial resolution (about 1 km).