scholarly journals Technical Note: Feasibility of CO<sub>2</sub> profile retrieval from limb viewing solar occultation made by the ACE-FTS instrument

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 2873-2890 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Y. Foucher ◽  
A. Chédin ◽  
G. Dufour ◽  
V. Capelle ◽  
C. D. Boone ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
Atmospheric Transport ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Accurate Determination ◽  
Technical Note ◽  
High Spectral Resolution ◽  
Vertical Profiles ◽  
Vertical Resolution ◽  
Solar Occultation ◽  
Co2 Profile

Abstract. Major limitations of our present knowledge of the global distribution of CO2 in the atmosphere are the uncertainty in atmospheric transport mixing and the sparseness of in situ concentration measurements. Limb viewing space-borne sounders, observing the atmosphere along tangential optical paths, offer a vertical resolution of a few kilometers for profiles, which is much better than currently flying or planned nadir sounding instruments can achieve. In this paper, we analyse the feasibility of obtaining CO2 vertical profiles in the 5–25 km altitude range from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS, launched in August 2003), high spectral resolution solar occultation measurements. Two main difficulties must be overcome: (i) the accurate determination of the instrument pointing parameters (tangent heights) and pressure/temperature profiles independently from an a priori CO2 profile, and (ii) the potential impact of uncertainties in the temperature knowledge on the retrieved CO2 profile. The first difficulty has been solved using the N2 collision-induced continuum absorption near 4 μm to determine tangent heights, pressure and temperature from the ACE-FTS spectra. The second difficulty has been solved by a careful selection of CO2 spectral micro-windows. Retrievals using synthetic spectra made under realistic simulation conditions show a vertical resolution close to 2.5 km and accuracy of the order of 2 ppm after averaging over 25 profiles. These results open the way to promising studies of transport mechanisms and carbon fluxes from the ACE-FTS measurements. First CO2 vertical profiles retrieved from real ACE-FTS occultations shown in this paper confirm the robustness of the method and applicability to real measurements.

scholarly journals Technical Note: Feasibility of CO<sub>2</sub> profile retrieval from limb viewing solar occultation made by the ACE-FTS instrument

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 411-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Y. Foucher ◽  
A. Chédin ◽  
G. Dufour ◽  
V. Capelle ◽  
C. D. Boone ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
Atmospheric Transport ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Accurate Determination ◽  
Technical Note ◽  
High Spectral Resolution ◽  
Vertical Resolution ◽  
Solar Occultation ◽  
Optical Paths ◽  
Co2 Profile

Abstract. Major limitations of our present knowledge of the global distribution of CO2 in the atmosphere are the uncertainty in atmospheric transport mixing and the sparseness of in situ concentration measurements. Limb viewing space-borne sounders, observing the atmosphere along tangential optical paths, offer a vertical resolution of a few kilometres for profiles, which is much better than currently flying or planned nadir sounding instruments can achieve. In this paper, we analyse the feasibility of obtaining CO2 vertical profiles in the 5–25 km altitude range from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS, launched in August 2003), high spectral resolution solar occultation measurements. Two main difficulties must be overcome: (i) the accurate determination of the instrument pointing parameters (tangent heights) and pressure/temperature profiles independently from an a priori CO2 profile, and (ii) the potential impact of uncertainties in the temperature knowledge on the retrieved CO2 profile. The first difficulty has been solved using the N2 collision-induced continuum absorption near 4 μm to determine tangent heights, pressure and temperature from the ACE-FTS spectra. The second difficulty has been solved by a careful selection of CO2 spectral micro-windows. Retrievals using synthetic spectra made under realistic simulation conditions show a vertical resolution close to 2.5 km and accuracy of the order of 2 ppm after averaging over 25 profiles. These results open the way to promising studies of transport mechanisms and carbon fluxes from the ACE-FTS measurements.

scholarly journals First carbon dioxide atmospheric vertical profiles retrieved from space observation using ACE-FTS solar occultation instrument

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 26473-26512
Author(s):  
P. Y. Foucher ◽  
A. Chédin ◽  
R. Armante ◽  
C. Boone ◽  
C. Crevoisier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
Atmospheric Transport ◽  
Vertical Gradient ◽  
Vertical Profiles ◽  
Aircraft Measurements ◽  
Transport Models ◽  
Solar Occultation ◽  
Chemistry Experiment ◽  
Better Than

Abstract. Major limitations of our present knowledge of the global distribution of CO2 in the atmosphere are the uncertainty in atmospheric transport and the sparseness of in situ concentration measurements. Limb viewing spaceborne sounders such as the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier transform spectrometer (ACE-FTS) offer a vertical resolution of a few kilometres for profiles, which is much better than currently flying or planned nadir sounding instruments can achieve. After having demonstrated the feasibility of obtaining CO2 vertical profiles in the 5–25 km altitude range with an accuracy of about 2 ppm in a previous study, we present here the results of five years of ACE-FTS observations in terms of monthly mean profiles of CO2 averaged over 10° latitude bands for northern mid-latitudes. These results are compared with in-situ aircraft measurements and with simulations from two different air transport models. Key features of the measured altitude distribution of CO2 are shown to be accurately reproduced by the ACE-FTS retrievals: variation in altitude of the seasonal cycle amplitude and extrema, seasonal change of the vertical gradient, and mean growth rate. We show that small but significant differences from model simulations could result from an over estimation of the model circulation strength during the northern hemisphere spring. Coupled with column measurements from a nadir viewing instrument, it is expected that occultation measurements will bring useful constraints to the surface carbon flux determination.

scholarly journals Carbon dioxide atmospheric vertical profiles retrieved from space observation using ACE-FTS solar occultation instrument

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 2455-2470 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Y. Foucher ◽  
A. Chédin ◽  
R. Armante ◽  
C. Boone ◽  
C. Crevoisier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
Atmospheric Transport ◽  
Vertical Gradient ◽  
Vertical Profiles ◽  
Aircraft Measurements ◽  
Transport Models ◽  
Solar Occultation ◽  
Chemistry Experiment ◽  
Better Than

Abstract. Major limitations of our present knowledge of the global distribution of CO2 in the atmosphere are the uncertainty in atmospheric transport and the sparseness of in situ concentration measurements. Limb viewing spaceborne sounders such as the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier transform spectrometer (ACE-FTS) offer a vertical resolution of a few kilometres for profiles, which is much better than currently flying or planned nadir sounding instruments can achieve. After having demonstrated the feasibility of obtaining CO2 vertical profiles in the 5–25 km altitude range with an accuracy of about 2 ppm in a previous study, we present here the results of five years of ACE-FTS observations in terms of monthly mean profiles of CO2 averaged over 10° latitude bands for northern mid-latitudes. These results are compared with in-situ aircraft measurements and with simulations from two different air transport models. Key features of the measured altitude distribution of CO2 are shown to be accurately reproduced by the ACE-FTS retrievals: variation in altitude of the seasonal cycle amplitude and extrema, seasonal change of the vertical gradient, and mean growth rate. We show that small but significant differences from model simulations could result from an over estimation of the model circulation strength during the northern hemisphere spring. Coupled with column measurements from a nadir viewing instrument, it is expected that occultation measurements will bring useful constraints to the surface carbon flux determination.

scholarly journals Comparison of the GOSAT TANSO-FTS TIR CH<sub>4</sub> volume mixing ratio vertical profiles with those measured by ACE-FTS, ESA MIPAS, IMK-IAA MIPAS, and 16 NDACC stations

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3697-3718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin S. Olsen ◽  
Kimberly Strong ◽  
Kaley A. Walker ◽  
Chris D. Boone ◽  
Piera Raspollini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Michelson Interferometer ◽  
Short Wave ◽  
Atmospheric Composition ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Vertical Profiles ◽  
Vertical Resolution ◽  
Data Set

Abstract. The primary instrument on the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) is the Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observations (TANSO) Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS). TANSO-FTS uses three short-wave infrared (SWIR) bands to retrieve total columns of CO2 and CH4 along its optical line of sight and one thermal infrared (TIR) channel to retrieve vertical profiles of CO2 and CH4 volume mixing ratios (VMRs) in the troposphere. We examine version 1 of the TANSO-FTS TIR CH4 product by comparing co-located CH4 VMR vertical profiles from two other remote-sensing FTS systems: the Canadian Space Agency's Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment FTS (ACE-FTS) on SCISAT (version 3.5) and the European Space Agency's Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) on Envisat (ESA ML2PP version 6 and IMK-IAA reduced-resolution version V5R_CH4_224/225), as well as 16 ground stations with the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). This work follows an initial inter-comparison study over the Arctic, which incorporated a ground-based FTS at the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) at Eureka, Canada, and focuses on tropospheric and lower-stratospheric measurements made at middle and tropical latitudes between 2009 and 2013 (mid-2012 for MIPAS). For comparison, vertical profiles from all instruments are interpolated onto a common pressure grid, and smoothing is applied to ACE-FTS, MIPAS, and NDACC vertical profiles. Smoothing is needed to account for differences between the vertical resolution of each instrument and differences in the dependence on a priori profiles. The smoothing operators use the TANSO-FTS a priori and averaging kernels in all cases. We present zonally averaged mean CH4 differences between each instrument and TANSO-FTS with and without smoothing, and we examine their information content, their sensitive altitude range, their correlation, their a priori dependence, and the variability within each data set. Partial columns are calculated from the VMR vertical profiles, and their correlations are examined. We find that the TANSO-FTS vertical profiles agree with the ACE-FTS and both MIPAS retrievals' vertical profiles within 4 % (± ∼  40 ppbv) below 15 km when smoothing is applied to the profiles from instruments with finer vertical resolution but that the relative differences can increase to on the order of 25 % when no smoothing is applied. Computed partial columns are tightly correlated for each pair of data sets. We investigate whether the difference between TANSO-FTS and other CH4 VMR data products varies with latitude. Our study reveals a small dependence of around 0.1 % per 10 degrees latitude, with smaller differences over the tropics and greater differences towards the poles.

scholarly journals Technical Note: Regularization performances with the error consistency method in the case of retrieved atmospheric profiles

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 13307-13321
Author(s):  
S. Ceccherini ◽  
C. Belotti ◽  
B. Carli ◽  
P. Raspollini ◽  
M. Ridolfi
Keyword(s):  
Regularization Parameter ◽  
Technical Note ◽  
Field Of View ◽  
Regularization Methods ◽  
Vertical Profiles ◽  
Vertical Resolution ◽  
Vertical Field ◽  
The Stability ◽  
First Time ◽  
Consistency Method

Abstract. The retrieval of concentration vertical profiles of atmospheric constituents from spectroscopic measurements is often an ill-conditioned problem and regularization methods are frequently used to improve its stability. Recently a new method, that provides a good compromise between precision and vertical resolution, was proposed to determine analytically the value of the regularization parameter. This method is applied for the first time to real measurements with its implementation in the operational retrieval code of the satellite limb-emission measurements of the MIPAS instrument and its performances are quantitatively analyzed. The adopted regularization improves the stability of the retrieval providing smooth profiles without major degradation of the vertical resolution. In the analyzed measurements the retrieval procedure provides a vertical resolution that, in the troposphere and low stratosphere, is smaller than the vertical field of view of the instrument.

Water vapor vertical profiles on Mars: Results from the first full Mars Year of TGO/NOMAD science operations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shohei Aoki ◽  
AnnCarine Vandaele ◽  
Frank Daerden ◽  
Geronimo Villanueva ◽  
Ian Thomas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Vertical Distribution ◽  
Dust Storm ◽  
Middle Atmosphere ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
High Spectral Resolution ◽  
Vertical Profiles ◽  
Geophysical Research ◽  
Solar Occultation ◽  
Science Operations

&lt;p&gt;Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery (NOMAD) onboard ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) started the science measurements on 21 April, 2018. We present results on the retrievals of water vapor vertical profiles in the Martian atmosphere from the first Mars year measurements of the TGO/NOMAD.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;NOMAD is a spectrometer operating in the spectral ranges between 0.2 and 4.3 &amp;#956;m onboard ExoMars TGO. NOMAD has 3 spectral channels: a solar occultation channel (SO &amp;#8211; Solar Occultation; 2.3&amp;#8211;4.3 &amp;#956;m), a second infrared channel capable of nadir, solar occultation, and limb sounding (LNO &amp;#8211; Limb Nadir and solar Occultation; 2.3&amp;#8211;3.8 &amp;#956;m), and an ultraviolet/visible channel (UVIS &amp;#8211; Ultraviolet and Visible Spectrometer, 200&amp;#8211;650 nm). The infrared channels (SO and LNO) have high spectral resolution (&amp;#955;/d&amp;#955;~10,000&amp;#8211;20,000) provided by an echelle grating used in combination with an Acousto Optic Tunable Filter (AOTF) which selects diffraction orders. The concept of the infrared channels are derived from the Solar Occultation in the IR (SOIR) instrument onboard Venus Express (VEx). The sampling rate for the solar occultation measurement is 1 second, which provides better vertical sampling step (~1 km) with higher resolution (~2 km) from the surface to 200 km. Thanks to the instantaneous change of the observing diffraction orders achieved by the AOTF, the SO channel is able to measure five or six different diffraction orders per second in solar occultation mode. In this study, we analyze the solar occultation measurements at diffraction order 134 (3011-3035 cm&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;), order 136 (3056-3080 cm&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;) and 168 (3775-3805 cm&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;) acquired by the SO channel in order to investigate H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O vertical profiles.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Knowledge of the water vapor vertical distribution is important to understand the water cycle and escape processes. Solar occultation measurements by the two spectrometers onboard TGO - NOMAD and Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) - allow us to monitor daily the water vapor vertical profiles through one whole Martian Year and obtain a latitudinal map for every ~20&amp;#176; of Ls. In 2018, for the first time after 2007, a global dust storm occurred on Mars. It lasted for more than two months (from June to August). Moreover, following the global dust storm, a regional dust storm occurred in January 2019. TGO began its science operations on 21 April 2018. NOMAD observations therefore fully cover the period before/during/after the global and regional dust storms and offer a unique opportunity to study the trace gases distributions during such events. We have analyzed those datasets and found a significant increase of water vapor abundance in the middle atmosphere (40-100 km) during the global dust storm from June to mid-September 2018 and the regional dust storm in January 2019. In particular, water vapor reaches very high altitudes, at least 100 km, during the global dust storm (Aoki et al., 2019, Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume124, Issue12, Pages 3482-3497, doi:10.1029/2019JE006109). A GCM simulation explained that dust storm related increases of atmospheric temperatures suppress the hygropause, hence reducing ice cloud formation and so allowing water vapor to extend into the middle atmosphere (Neary et al., 2020, Geophysical Research Letters, 47, e2019GL084354., doi: 10.1029/2019GL084354). The current study presents the results obtained when considering the extended dataset, which covers a full Martian year. The extended dataset includes the recent aphelion season that involves interesting phenomena such as sublimation of water vapor from the northern polar cap and formation of the equatorial cloud belt, and is known as a key period to understand the large north-south hemispheric asymmetries of Mars water vapor. Yet, until now, only few papers reported the water vapor vertical distribution during the aphelion season. The extended dataset also includes the period when the global dust storm occurred the year before; this will allow us to compare the water vapor distributions under global dust storm conditions with those found during non-global dust storm years. In the presentation, we will discuss the H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O vertical profiles as well as the aerosols vertical distribution retrieved from the first full Martian year measurements of the TGO/NOMAD.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;!-- COMO-HTML-CONTENT-END --&gt; &lt;p class=&quot;co_mto_htmlabstract-citationHeader&quot;&gt; &lt;strong class=&quot;co_mto_htmlabstract-citationHeader-intro&quot;&gt;How to cite:&lt;/strong&gt; Aoki, S., Vandaele, A., Daerden, F., Villanueva, G., Thomas, I., Erwin, J., Trompet, L., Robert, S., Neary, L., Viscardy, S., Piccialli, A., Liuzzi, G., Crismani, M., Clancy, T., Smith, M., Ristic, B., Lopez-Valverde, M.-A., Patel, M., Bellucci, G., and Lopez-Moreno, J.-J.: Water vapor vertical profiles on Mars: Results from the first full Mars Year of TGO/NOMAD science operations, Europlanet Science Congress 2020, online, 21 September&amp;#8211;9 Oct 2020, EPSC2020-392, 2020 &lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals New temperature and pressure retrieval algorithm for high-resolution infrared solar occultation spectroscopy: analysis and validation against ACE-FTS and COSMIC

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 10823-10873 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. S. Olsen ◽  
G. C. Toon ◽  
C. D. Boone ◽  
K. Strong
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
Primary Component ◽  
Retrieval Algorithm ◽  
Cold Bias ◽  
Vertical Profiles ◽  
Solar Occultation ◽  
Spatial Coverage ◽  
Temperature And Pressure ◽  
Mean Differences

Abstract. Motivated by the initial selection of a high-resolution solar occultation Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) to fly to Mars on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, we have been developing algorithms for retrieving volume mixing ratio vertical profiles of trace gases, the primary component of which is a new algorithm and software for retrieving vertical profiles of temperature and pressure from the spectra. In contrast to Earth-observing instruments, which can rely on accurate meteorological models, a priori information, and spacecraft position, Mars retrievals require a method with minimal reliance on such data. The temperature and pressure retrieval algorithms developed for this work were evaluated using Earth-observing spectra from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) FTS, a solar occultation instrument in orbit since 2003, and the basis for the instrument selected for a Mars mission. ACE-FTS makes multiple measurements during an occultation, separated in altitude by 1.5–5 km, and we analyze 10 CO2 vibration-rotation bands at each altitude, each with a different usable altitude range. We describe the algorithms and present results of their application and their comparison to the ACE-FTS data products. The Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) provides vertical profiles of temperature up to 40 km with high vertical resolution. Using six satellites and GPS radio occultation, COSMIC's data product has excellent temporal and spatial coverage, allowing us to find coincident measurements with ACE with very tight criteria: less than 1.5 h and 150 km. We present an inter-comparison of temperature profiles retrieved from ACE-FTS using our algorithm, that of the ACE Science Team (v3.5), and from COSMIC. When our retrievals are compared to ACE-FTS v3.5, we find mean differences between −5 and +2 K, and that our retrieved profiles have no seasonal or zonal biases, but do have a warm bias in the stratosphere and a cold bias in the mesosphere. When compared to COSMIC, we do not observe a warm/cool bias and mean differences are between −4 and +1 K. COSMIC comparisons are restricted to below 40 km, where our retrievals have the best agreement with ACE-FTS v3.5. When comparing ACE-FTS v3.5 to COSMIC we observe a cold bias in COSMIC of 0.5 K, and mean differences are between −0.9 and +0.6 K.

scholarly journals Technical Note: Regularization performances with the error consistency method in the case of retrieved atmospheric profiles

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 1435-1440 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Ceccherini ◽  
C. Belotti ◽  
B. Carli ◽  
P. Raspollini ◽  
M. Ridolfi
Keyword(s):  
Regularization Parameter ◽  
Technical Note ◽  
Field Of View ◽  
Regularization Methods ◽  
Vertical Profiles ◽  
Vertical Resolution ◽  
Vertical Field ◽  
The Stability ◽  
First Time ◽  
Consistency Method

Abstract. The retrieval of concentration vertical profiles of atmospheric constituents from spectroscopic measurements is often an ill-conditioned problem and regularization methods are frequently used to improve its stability. Recently a new method, that provides a good compromise between precision and vertical resolution, was proposed to determine analytically the value of the regularization parameter. This method is applied for the first time to real measurements with its implementation in the operational retrieval code of the satellite limb-emission measurements of the MIPAS instrument and its performances are quantitatively analyzed. The adopted regularization improves the stability of the retrieval providing smooth profiles without major degradation of the vertical resolution. In the analyzed measurements the retrieval procedure provides a vertical resolution that, in the troposphere and low stratosphere, is smaller than the vertical field of view of the instrument.

scholarly journals Technical Note: Temporal change in averaging kernels as a source of uncertainty in trend estimates of carbon monoxide retrieved from MOPITT

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 11307-11316 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Yoon ◽  
A. Pozzer ◽  
P. Hoor ◽  
D. Y. Chang ◽  
S. Beirle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Monoxide ◽  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
Temporal Change ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Optimal Estimation ◽  
Technical Note ◽  
Retrieval Algorithm ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Surface Level ◽  
Surface Carbon

Abstract. It has become possible to retrieve the global, long-term trends of trace gases that are important to atmospheric chemistry, climate, and air quality from satellite data records that span more than a decade. However, many of the satellite remote sensing techniques produce measurements that have variable sensitivity to the vertical profiles of atmospheric gases. In the case of constrained retrievals like optimal estimation, this leads to a varying amount of a priori information in the retrieval and is represented by an averaging kernel (AK). In this study, we investigate to what extent the estimation of trends from retrieved data can be biased by temporal changes of averaging kernels used in the retrieval algorithm. In particular, the surface carbon monoxide data retrieved from the Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument from 2001 to 2010 were analyzed. As a practical example based on the MOPITT data, we show that if the true atmospheric mixing ratio is continuously 50% higher or lower than the a priori state, the temporal change of the averaging kernel at the surface level gives rise to an artificial trend in retrieved surface carbon monoxide, ranging from −10.71 to +13.21 ppbv yr−1 (−5.68 to +8.84 % yr−1) depending on location. Therefore, in the case of surface (or near-surface level) CO derived from MOPITT, the AKs trends multiplied by the difference between true and a priori states must be quantified in order to estimate trend biases.

scholarly journals Technical Note: Temporal change in averaging kernels as a source of uncertainty in trend estimates of carbon monoxide retrieved from MOPITT

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 20319-20340
Author(s):  
J. Yoon ◽  
A. Pozzer ◽  
P. Hoor ◽  
D. Y. Chang ◽  
S. Beirle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Monoxide ◽  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
Temporal Change ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Optimal Estimation ◽  
Technical Note ◽  
Retrieval Algorithm ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Surface Level ◽  
Surface Carbon

Abstract. It is now possible to monitor the global and long-term trends of trace gases that are important to atmospheric chemistry, climate, and air quality with satellite data records that span more than a decade. However, many of the remote sensing techniques used by satellite instruments produce measurements that have variable sensitivity to the vertical profiles of atmospheric gases. In the case of constrained retrievals like optimal estimation, this leads to a varying amount of a priori information in the retrieval and is represented by an averaging kernel. In this study, we investigate to what extent such trends can be biased by temporal changes of averaging kernels used in the retrieval algorithm. In particular, the surface carbon monoxide data retrieved from the Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument from 2001 to 2010 were analysed. As a practical example based on the MOPITT data, we show that if the true atmospheric mixing ratio is continuously 50% higher or lower than the a priori state, the temporal change of the averaging kernel at the surface level gives rise to an artificial trend in retrieved surface carbon monoxide, ranging from −10.71 to +13.21 ppbv yr−1 (−5.68 to +8.84% yr−1) depending on location. Therefore, in the case of surface (or near-surface level) CO derived from MOPITT, the AKs trends multiplied by the difference between true and a priori states must be quantified in order to estimate trend biases.

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