Comparative analysis of low-Earth orbit (TROPOMI) and geostationary (GeoCARB, GEO-CAPE) satellite instruments for constraining methane emissions on fine regional scales: application to the Southeast US

Sheng, Jian-Xiong; Jacob, Daniel J.; Maasakkers, Joannes D.; Zhang, Yuzhong; Sulprizio, Melissa P.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-6379-2018

Articles | Volume 11, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-6379-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-6379-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 11, issue 12

Research article

|

29 Nov 2018

Research article |

| 29 Nov 2018

Comparative analysis of low-Earth orbit (TROPOMI) and geostationary (GeoCARB, GEO-CAPE) satellite instruments for constraining methane emissions on fine regional scales: application to the Southeast US

Jian-Xiong Sheng, Daniel J. Jacob, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Yuzhong Zhang, and Melissa P. Sulprizio

Data sets

TCCON data from Lamont, Oklahoma, USA P. Wennberg, D. Wunch, C. Roehl, J. Blavier, G. Toon, N. Allen, P. Dowell, K. Teske, C. Martin, and J. Martin https://doi.org/10.14291/tccon.ggg2014.lamont01.R1/1255070

Short summary

We conduct Observing System Simulation Experiments to compare the ability of future satellite measurements of atmospheric methane columns for constraining methane emissions at the 25 km scale. We find that the geostationary instruments can do much better than TROPOMI and are less sensitive to cloud cover. GeoCARB observing twice a day would provide 70 % of the information from the nominal GEO-CAPE mission considered by NASA in response to the Decadal Survey of the US National Research Council.