Effects of a spectral surface reflectance on measurements of backscattered solar radiation: Application to the MOPITT methane retrieval

The amount of solar radiation emerging from the top of the atmosphere is strongly influenced by the reflectance of the underlying surface. For this reason, some information about the magnitude and the spectral variability of the surface reflectance typically has to be included in the retrieval of atmospheric parameters from reflected solar radiation measurements. Sufficient information about the surface reflectance properties is rarely available, and the integration of this effect in the retrieval might turn out to be a challenge, especially for broadband instruments. In this paper the focus is on the Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) remote sensing instrument. Theoretical studies are performed to investigate how a spectrally varying surface reflectance might impact the retrieval of the total column amount of methane from MOPITT radiance measurements, and the current findings are compared to observed biases. However, the findings present herein might be valuable and applicable for other remote sensing instruments that are sensitive to the amount of solar radiation reflected from the earth's surface.