The feasibility of retrieving vertical temperature profiles from satellite nadir UV observations: A sensitivity analysis and an inversion experiment with neural network algorithms

•A sensitivity analysis and an inversion scheme to retrieve temperature profiles from satellite UV observations (320-325 nm).•The exploitation of the temperature dependence of the absorption cross section of ozone in the Huggins band is proposed.•First demonstration of the feasibility of temperature profiles retrieval from satellite UV observations.•RMSEs and biases comparable with more established techniques involving TIR and MW observations.

Atmospheric temperature profiles are inferred from passive satellite instruments, using thermal infrared or microwave observations. Here we investigate on the feasibility of the retrieval of height resolved temperature information in the ultraviolet spectral region. The temperature dependence of the absorption cross sections of ozone in the Huggins band, in particular in the interval 320-325 nm, is exploited. We carried out a sensitivity analysis and demonstrated that a non-negligible information on the temperature profile can be extracted from this small band. Starting from these results, we developed a neural network inversion algorithm, trained and tested with simulated nadir EnviSat-SCIAMACHY ultraviolet observations. The algorithm is able to retrieve the temperature profile with root mean square errors and biases comparable to existing retrieval schemes that use thermal infrared or microwave observations. This demonstrates, for the first time, the feasibility of temperature profiles retrieval from space-borne instruments operating in the ultraviolet.