Construction of an atmospheric structure profile will be based upon
the work of Baines and Hammel (1994) who used observations from
0.6-0.9
taken with the University of Hawaii 2.24 m telescope
at Mauna Kea to derive a profile for Neptune.
Constants in the model were the tropospheric methane mixing ratio, the
hydrogen ortho/para ratio (defined as equilibrium), and the base of
the visible atmosphere (higher in Uranus than in Neptune). The phase
functions and initial thermal profile were from Voyager observations.
For each of three observed
bands they computed four parameters, the opacity and hazetop
pressure of the
haze layer, the stratospheric mixing ratio,
and the stratospheric mean radius. These along with the
center-of-disk intensity are used to compute the
stratospheric aerosol column abundance. The center-to-limb behavior
serves as a check. Additional constraints are that opacities cannot
be negative, single-scattering albedos
must be
between 0 and 1, and that haze opacities increase towards the blue.