Infrared remote sensing of atmospheric composition over the polar region

For monitoring environmental changes, new passive infrared instruments have become available that allow change detection analyses at resolutions and scales that were impossible just a few years ago. Current instruments have been installed in Antarctica will help to better understand the photochemical transport process and accurately predict ozone depletion and climate changes. During the 2003 polar summer one spectrometer was installed at the McMurdo station and another at the South Pole station, for year-around atmospheric chemistry monitoring. These two instruments use the emission technique to deliver high resolution spectra, from which will derive vertical profiles of many atmospheric tracers involved in the ozone destruction process. The first setup uses one channel to acquire the atmospheric data throw two different angles, the second setup uses two simultaneous channels to acquire the data at the same sky angles. Both instruments integrate two black bodies at different temperatures to calibrate the sky data. The data generated will have multipurpose, first is to provide validation for the new generation of the satellite sensors, like the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), second is to allow photochemical transport modelers to compare outputs with actual measurements, and third is to evaluate the trend of some column abundance measurements like HNO3, CH4, O-3, CFCs, H2O ... The paper will present description of the instrumentation, the measurement technique and the automated analysis.