“…Thin cirrus is commonly referred to as ''subvisible'' cirrus, since the human eye, looking upward, cannot detect these optically thin clouds. Cirrus extinctions near the tropopause were measured by CLAES [Mergenthaler et al, 1999] Gille et al, submitted manuscript, 2007) joins the roster of space experiments which can measure clouds in the stratosphere and upper troposphere. HIRDLS is a limb viewing emission experiment with 21 spectral channels in the infrared, spanning the wavelength range from 6.2 to 17.2 mm, and was designed to measure temperature-pressure profiles, the mixing ratios of many gas species (i.e., O 3 , HNO 3 , H 2 O, NO 2 , N 2 O, CH 4 , CFC-11, CFC-12, ClONO 2 , N 2 O 5 ), and cloud/ aerosol extinction profiles.…”