Assimilation of atmospheric methane products in the MACC-II system: from SCIAMACHY to TANSO and IASI
Abstract. The Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate Interim Implementation (MACC-II) delayed-mode (DM) system has been producing an atmospheric methane (CH4) analysis 6 months behind real time since June 2009. This analysis used to rely on the assimilation of the CH4 product from the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) instrument on board Envisat. Recently the \\textit{Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique} (LMD) CH4 products from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) and the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research CH4 products from the Thermal And Near-infrared Sensor for carbon Observation (TANSO) were added to the DM system. With the loss of Envisat in April 2012, the DM system has to now rely on the assimilation of methane data from TANSO and IASI. This paper documents the impact of this change in the observing system on the methane tropospheric analysis. It is based on four experiments: one free run and three analyses from respectively the assimilation of SCIAMACHY, TANSO and a combination of TANSO and IASI CH4 products in the MACC-II system. The period between December 2010 and April 2012 is studied. This corresponds to a period during which the performance of SCIAMACHY was deteriorating. The SCIAMACHY experiment globally underestimates the tropospheric methane by 35 part per billion (ppb) compared to the HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations (HIPPO) data and the methane column by 23 ppb compared the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) data, when the global bias of the free run against the same HIPPO and TCCON data is respectively −5 ppb and 4 ppb. The assimilated TANSO product changed in October 2011 from version v.1 to version v.2.0. The analysis of version v.1 globally underestimates the tropospheric methane by 18 ppb compared to the HIPPO data and the column by 11 ppb compared to the TCCON data. In contrast, the analysis of version v.2.0 globally overestimates the column by 10 ppb. When the high density IASI data are added in the tropical region between 30° N and 30° S, the resulting analysis is slightly less biased in the troposphere than the TANSO analysis when compared to the HIPPO data. In the meantime, this IASI plus TANSO analysis presents the worst correlation with the HIPPO data. In terms of column, the addition of the IASI data to the version v.2.0 of the TANSO data has a significant impact, mainly over extratropical regions, reducing the global bias to 6 ppb. The analysis based on the assimilation of the combination of TANSO and IASI products as well as the SCIAMACHY analysis should nevertheless be used with caution when looking at the seasonal cycle or inter-hemispheric gradient because of the unavailability of the measurements over large regions during the local winter period.