TITLE: Non-local thermodynamic equilibrium limb radiances for the MIPAS instrument on Envisat-1 AUTHORS: Lopez-Puertas, M., G. Zaragoza, M. A. Lopez-Valverde, F. J. Martin-Torres, G. M. Shved, R. O. Manuilova, A. A. Kutepov, O. Gusev, T. V. Clarmann, A. Linden, G. Stiller, A. Wegner, H. Oelhaf, D. P. Edwards and J.-M. Flaud REFERENCE: J. Quant. Spect. Rad. Transfer, 59, pp.377-403, 1998 ABSTRACT: An evaluation of the effects that the assumption of LTE has on the retrieval of pressure, temperature and the five primary target gases (O3, H2O, CH4, N2O, and HNO3) from spectra to be taken by MIPAS on the Envisat--1 platform has been conducted. For doing so, non-LTE and LTE limb radiances in the spectral range of 680-2275 cm-1 (4.15-14.6 mu) with a resolution of 0.05 cm-1 at tangent heights from 10 to 70 km have been computed. These calculations included the most updated non-LTE populations of a large number of vibrational levels of the CO2, O3, H2O, CH4, N2O, and HNO3 molecules which originate the most prominent atmospheric infrared emissions. A discussion of the most important non-LTE effects on the limb radiances as well as on the retrievals of pressure-temperature and volume mixing ratios of O3, H2O, CH4, N2O, and HNO3 is presented, together with the most important non-LTE issues that could be studied with the future coming of MIPAS data.