scholarly journals Mapping carbon monoxide pollution from space down to city scales with daily global coverage

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Borsdorff ◽  
Joost aan de Brugh ◽  
Haili Hu ◽  
Otto Hasekamp ◽  
Ralf Sussmann ◽  
...  

Abstract. On 13th October, 2017, the European Space Agency (ESA) successfully launched the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite with the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) as its single payload. TROPOMI is the first of ESA's atmospheric composition Sentinel missions, which will provide complete long-term records of atmospheric trace gases for the coming 30 years as a contribution to the European Union's Earth Observing programme Copernicus. One of TROPOMI's primary products is atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO). It is observed with daily global coverage and a high spatial resolution of 7 × 7 km2. Due to its moderate atmospheric residence time, its atmospheric abundance provides information on both localized pollution hot spots and the pollutant transport on regional to global scales. In this contribution, we demonstrate the game-changing performance of the TROPOMI CO product, sensing CO enhancements above cities and industrial areas and tracking, with daily coverage, the atmospheric transport of pollution from biomass burning regions. The CO data product is validated with two months of Fourier-transform spectroscopy (FTS) measurements at nine ground-based stations operated by the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON). We found a good agreement between both data sets with a mean bias of 6 ppb for both clear-sky and cloudy TROPOMI CO retrievals. Together with the corresponding standard deviation of the station-to-station bias of 3.9 ppb for clear-sky and 2.4 ppb for cloudy-sky, it indicates that the CO data product is already well within the mission requirement.

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 5507-5518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Borsdorff ◽  
Joost aan de Brugh ◽  
Haili Hu ◽  
Otto Hasekamp ◽  
Ralf Sussmann ◽  
...  

Abstract. On 13 October 2017, the European Space Agency (ESA) successfully launched the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite with the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) as its single payload. TROPOMI is the first of ESA's atmospheric composition Sentinel missions, which will provide complete long-term records of atmospheric trace gases for the coming 30 years as a contribution to the European Union's Earth Observing program Copernicus. One of TROPOMI's primary products is atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO). It is observed with daily global coverage and a high spatial resolution of 7×7 km2. The moderate atmospheric resistance time and the low background concentration leads to localized pollution hotspots of CO and allows the tracking of the atmospheric transport of pollution on regional to global scales. In this contribution, we demonstrate the groundbreaking performance of the TROPOMI CO product, sensing CO enhancements above cities and industrial areas and tracking, with daily coverage, the atmospheric transport of pollution from biomass burning regions. The CO data product is validated with two months of Fourier-transform spectroscopy (FTS) measurements at nine ground-based stations operated by the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON). We found a good agreement between both datasets with a mean bias of 6 ppb (average of individual station biases) for both clear-sky and cloudy TROPOMI CO retrievals. Together with the corresponding standard deviation of the individual station biases of 3.8 ppb for clear-sky and 4.0 ppb for cloudy sky, it indicates that the CO data product is already well within the mission requirement.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Lerot ◽  
M. Van Roozendael ◽  
J. van Geffen ◽  
J. van Gent ◽  
C. Fayt ◽  
...  

Abstract. Total O3 columns have been retrieved from six years of SCIAMACHY nadir UV radiance measurements using SDOAS, an adaptation of the GDOAS algorithm previously developed at BIRA-IASB for the GOME instrument. GDOAS and SDOAS have been implemented by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in the version 4 of the GOME Data Processor (GDP) and in version 3 of the SCIAMACHY Ground Processor (SGP), respectively. The processors are being run at the DLR processing centre on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA). We first focus on the description of the SDOAS algorithm with particular attention to the impact of uncertainties on the reference O3 absorption cross-sections. Second, the resulting SCIAMACHY total ozone data set is globally evaluated through large-scale comparisons with results from GOME and OMI as well as with ground-based correlative measurements. The various total ozone data sets are found to agree within 2% on average. However, a negative trend of 0.2–0.4%/year has been identified in the SCIAMACHY O3 columns; this probably originates from instrumental degradation effects that have not yet been fully characterized.


2020 ◽  
Vol 237 ◽  
pp. 01008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Baars ◽  
Alexander Geiß ◽  
Ulla Wandinger ◽  
Alina Herzog ◽  
Ronny Engelmann ◽  
...  

On 22nd August 2018, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the first direct detection Doppler wind lidar into space. Operating at 355 nm and acquiring signals with a dual channel receiver, it allows wind observations in clear air and particle-laden regions of the atmosphere. Furthermore, particle optical properties can be obtained using the High Spectral Resolution Technique Lidar (HSRL) technique. Measuring with 87 km horizontal and 0.25-2 km vertical resolution between ground and up to 30 km in the stratosphere, the global coverage of Aeolus observations shall fill gaps in the global observing system and thus help improving numerical weather prediction. Within this contribution, first results from the German initiative for experimental Aeolus validation are presented and discussed. Ground-based wind and aerosol measurements from tropospheric radar wind profilers, Doppler wind lidars, radiosondes, aerosol lidars and cloud radars are utilized for that purpose.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 3815-3828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arno de Lange ◽  
Jochen Landgraf

Abstract. This paper discusses the retrieval of atmospheric methane profiles from the thermal infrared band of the Japanese Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) between 1210 and 1310 cm−1, using the RemoTeC analysis software. Approximately one degree of information on the vertical methane distribution is inferred from the measurements, with the main sensitivity at about 9 km altitude but little sensitivity to methane in the lower troposphere. For verification, we compare the GOSAT-TIR methane profile retrieval results with profiles from model fields provided by the Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC) project, scaled to the total column measurements of the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) at ground-based measurement sites. Without any radiometric corrections of GOSAT observations, differences between both data sets can be as large as 10 %. To mitigate these differences, we developed a correction scheme using a principal component analysis of spectral fit residuals and airborne observations of methane during the HIAPER pole-to-pole observations (HIPPO) campaign II and III. When the correction scheme is applied, the bias in the methane profile can be reduced to less than 2 % over the whole altitude range with respect to MACC model methane fields. Furthermore, we show that, with this correction, the retrievals result in smooth methane fields over land and ocean crossings and no differences can be discerned between daytime and nighttime measurements. Finally, a cloud filter is developed for the nighttime and ocean measurements. This filter is rooted in the GOSAT-TIR (thermal infrared) measurements and its performance, in terms of biases, is consistent with the cloud filter based on the GOSAT-SWIR (shortwave infrared) measurements. The TIR filter shows a higher acceptance rate of observations than the SWIR filter, at the cost of a higher uncertainty in the retrieved methane profiles.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wouter Dorigo ◽  
Irene Himmelbauer ◽  
Daniel Aberer ◽  
Lukas Schremmer ◽  
Ivana Petrakovic ◽  
...  

Abstract. In 2009, the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN) was initiated as a community effort, funded by the European Space Agency, to serve as a centralised data hosting facility for globally available in situ soil moisture measurements (Dorigo et al., 2011a, b). The ISMN brings together in situ soil moisture measurements collected and freely shared by a multitude of organisations, harmonizes them in terms of units and sampling rates, applies advanced quality control, and stores them in a database. Users can freely retrieve the data from this database through an online web portal (https://ismn.earth). Meanwhile, the ISMN has evolved into the primary in situ soil moisture reference database worldwide, as evidenced by more than 3000 active users and over 1000 scientific publications referencing the data sets provided by the network. As of December 2020, the ISMN now contains data of 65 networks and 2678 stations located all over the globe, with a time period spanning from 1952 to present.The number of networks and stations covered by the ISMN is still growing and many of the data sets contained in the database continue to be updated. The main scope of this paper is to inform readers about the evolution of the ISMN over the past decade,including a description of network and data set updates and quality control procedures. A comprehensive review of existing literature making use of ISMN data is also provided in order to identify current limitations in functionality and data usage, and to shape priorities for the next decade of operations of this unique community-based data repository.


1996 ◽  
Vol 27 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 25-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. L. Kane ◽  
L. D. Hinzman ◽  
Haofang Yu ◽  
D. J. Goering

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has the potential for measuring near surface soil moisture contents for very large areas. The polar orbiting European Remote Sensing satellite (ERS-1) of the European Space Agency (ESA) has onboard an active C-band SAR sensor. We have analyzed SAR imagery over a small research watershed, Imnavait Creek, located in the northern foothills of the Brooks Range in Alaska, U.S.A. This watershed is treeless and completely underlain with permafrost. After geometrically and radiometrically correcting each pixel (25 m by 25 m) in the image, corrected pixel values were correlated with corresponding field moisture contents measured along transects in the watershed for two passes of the satellite. Coefficients of determination, r2, between the corrected pixel value and measured moisture content were 0.49 on June 12, 1993 and 0.53 on August 2, 1993; with the data sets combined the value was 0.50.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chrysanthi Topaloglou ◽  
Marios Mermigkas ◽  
Maria-Elissavet Koukouli ◽  
Dimitrios Balis ◽  
Frank Hase ◽  
...  

<p>The column-averaged dry air mole fractions of carbon dioxide (XCO<sub>2</sub>), methane (XCH<sub>4</sub>) and carbon monoxide (XCO) have been measured for the first time for a whole year in Thessaloniki, Greece, using the portable Bruker EM27/SUN ground-based low-resolution Fourier Transform spectrometer, provided by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The EM27/SUN is a reliable, easy-to-deploy, mobile, low-cost supplement to the Bruker IFS 125HR<strong>, </strong>a high-resolution spectrometer used in the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON)<strong>. </strong>Approximately 30 of the EM27/SUN instruments constitute the Collaborative Carbon Column Observing Network (COCCON)<strong>, </strong>with stations around the globe for the quantification of local sinks and sources, working as an important supplement of TCCON to increase the global density of column-averaged greenhouse gas observations</p><p>One year of measurements of XCH<sub>4</sub> and XCO are presented for Thessaloniki, Greece. The station is located in the center of the city. The data are compared to collocated measurements from S5P/TROPOMI using 50km and ±30 min as criteria. For the XCH<sub>4</sub> comparisons, the ground based XCH<sub>4</sub> is constantly found to be lower than the satellite product. However, for ground based retrievals of XCH<sub>4</sub> using the TROPOMI algorithm and IR band, the comparison with the satellite data shows a percentage difference lower than ±2%, well within product requirements. Satellite XCO is also compared to ground observations to examine if EM27/SUN concentrations are reproduced by S5P/TROPOMI and whether the temporal variations are captured</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Aknowledgments</p><p>This work was co-funded by ESA within the Contract No. 4000117151/16/l-LG “Preparation and Operations of the Mission Performance Centre (MPC) for the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor Satellite”. The satellite data were obtained through Sentinel-5P Expert Users Data Hub (https://s5pexp.copernicus.eu/). <br><br></p><p>This research was co-funded by the project "PANhellenic infrastructure for Atmospheric Composition and climatE change" (MIS 5021516) which is implemented under the Action "Reinforcement of the Research and Innovation Infrastructure", funded by the Operational Programme "Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation" (NSRF 2014-2020) and co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund).</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pepijn Veefkind ◽  
Ilse Aben ◽  
Angelika Dehn ◽  
Quintus Kleipool ◽  
Diego Loyola ◽  
...  

<p>The Copernicus Sentinel 5 Precursor (S5P) is the first of the Sentinel satellites dedicated to the observation of the atmospheric composition, for climate, air quality and ozone monitoring applications. The payload of S5P is TROPOMI (TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument), a spectrometer covering spectral bands in ultraviolet, visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared, which was developed by The Netherlands in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA). TROPOMI has a wide swath of 2600 km, enabling daily global coverage, in combination with a high spatial resolution of about 3.5 x 5.5 km<sup>2</sup> (7 x 5.5 km<sup>2</sup> for the SWIR band).</p><p>S5P was successfully launched on 13 October 2017 and following a six-month commissioning phase, the operational data stream started at the end of April 2018. All of the TROPOMI operational data products have been released, with the exception of the ozone profile, which is planned to become available with the next major release[AR1]  of the Level 1B data. In addition to the operational data products, new research products are also being developed.</p><p>In this contribution, the status of TROPOMI and its data products will be presented. Results for observations of recent events will be provided, along with an outlook on the next release of the data products.</p><div> <div> <div> </div> </div> </div>


2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 7811-7865 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Ebojie ◽  
C. von Savigny ◽  
A. Ladstätter-Weißenmayer ◽  
A. Rozanov ◽  
M. Weber ◽  
...  

Abstract. Tropospheric ozone, O3, has two sources: transport from the stratosphere and photochemical production in the troposphere. It plays important roles in atmospheric chemistry and climate change. In this manuscript we describe the retrieval of tropospheric O3 columns from limb-nadir matching (LNM) observations of the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) instrument, which flies as part of the payload onboard the European Space Agency (ESA) satellite Envisat. This retrieval technique is a residual approach that utilizes the subtraction of the stratospheric O3 columns, derived from the limb observations, from the total O3 columns, derived from the nadir observations. The technique requires accurate knowledge of the stratospheric O3 columns, the total O3 columns, tropopause height, and their associated errors. The stratospheric O3 columns were determined from the stratospheric O3 profile retrieved in the Hartley and Chappius bands, based on SCIAMACHY limb scattering measurements. The total O3 columns were also derived from SCIAMACHY measurements, in the nadir viewing mode using the Weighting Function Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (WFDOAS) technique in the Huggins band. Comparisons of the tropospheric O3 columns from SCIAMACHY and collocated measurements from ozonesondes, in both hemispheres between January 2003 and December 2011 show agreement to within 2–5 DU (1 DU = 2.69 × 1016 molecules cm−2). Comparison of tropospheric O3 from SCIAMACHY with the results from ozonesondes, the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES), and the LNM method combining Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) data (hereinafter referred to as OMI/MLS), have been investigated. We find that all four retrieved data sets show agreement within the error bars and exhibit strong seasonal variation, which differs in amplitude. The spatial distribution of tropospheric ozone observed shows pollution plumes related to the release of precursors at the different seasons in both hemispheres.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 10513-10558
Author(s):  
S. Barthlott ◽  
M. Schneider ◽  
F. Hase ◽  
A. Wiegele ◽  
E. Christner ◽  
...  

Abstract. Within the NDACC (Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change), more than 20 FTIR (Fourier–Transform InfraRed) spectrometers, spread worldwide, provide long-term data records of many atmospheric trace gases. We present a method that uses measured and modelled XCO2 for assessing the consistency of these data records. Our NDACC XCO2 retrieval setup is kept simple so that it can easily be adopted for any NDACC/FTIR-like measurement made since the late 1950s. By a comparison to coincident TCCON (Total Carbon Column Observing Network) measurements, we empirically demonstrate the useful quality of this NDACC XCO2 product (empirically obtained scatter between TCCON and NDACC is about 4‰ for daily mean as well as monthly mean comparisons and the bias is 25‰). As XCO2 model we developed and used a simple regression model fitted to CarbonTracker results and the Mauna Loa CO2 in-situ records. A comparison to TCCON data suggests an uncertainty of the model for monthly mean data of below 3‰. We apply the method to the NDACC/FTIR spectra that are used within the project MUSICA (MUlti-platform remote Sensing of Isotopologues for investigating the Cycle of Atmospheric water) and demonstrate that there is a good consistency for these globally representative set of spectra measured since 1996: the scatter between the modelled and measured XCO2 on a yearly time scale is only 3‰.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document