Outgoing radiation from the atmosphere is calculated at several frequencies in the 15‐μ carbon dioxide band according to the random Elsasser band model and the Curtis‐Godson approximation to the mean line width. From the resulting values, an inversion of the problem is performed, with simplifying assumptions, to recover the temperature structure of the upper part of the atmosphere. This abbreviation of the experiment proposed by Kaplan would yield the temperatures and the lapse rates in two layers of the atmosphere from three measurements of the outgoing radiation. Results from three model atmospheres indicate that calculated mean lapse rates and mean temperatures in the two layers, as they might be deduced from measurements made from a satellite, are in good agreement with actual temperature struct