Remote sensing of the minor gas constituents of the lower and middle atmosphere

The principle possibility of atmosphere minor gas constituents (MGC) radiometric monitoring is based on the features of the thermal radio emission generated by atmospheric gases having magnetic and electric dipole moments. These gases according to quantum laws give radiation (absorption) maxima at the resonance frequencies of their molecules. By measuring the level of the atmospheric thermal radiation near MGC resonances, one can obtain information on the contents of polluting gas components. The radiofrequency band is accounted for by the rotation spectra of gas molecules. So, the radiometric monitoring deals with simpler atmospheric gas spectra as compared with IR and optics which account for vibrational and electron quantum transitions, respectively.