Articles | Volume 8, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-1641-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-1641-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| 
01 Apr 2015
Research article |
| 01 Apr 2015
Estimating bias in the OCO-2 retrieval algorithm caused by 3-D radiation scattering from unresolved boundary layer clouds
A. Merrelli
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
R. Bennartz
Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Dept. of Earth and Environmental Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
C. W. O'Dell
Dept. of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
T. E. Taylor
Dept. of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
Related authors
Nicole Jacobs, Christopher W. O'Dell, Thomas E. Taylor, Thomas L. Logan, Brendan Byrne, Matthäus Kiel, Rigel Kivi, Pauli Heikkinen, Aronne Merrelli, Vivienne H. Payne, and Abhishek Chatterjee
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1375–1401, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1375-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1375-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The accuracy of trace gas retrievals from spaceborne observations, like those from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2), are sensitive to the referenced digital elevation model (DEM). Therefore, we evaluate several global DEMs, used in versions 10 and 11 of the OCO-2 retrieval along with the Copernicus DEM. We explore the impacts of changing the DEM on biases in OCO-2-retrieved XCO2 and inferred CO2 fluxes. Our findings led to an update to OCO-2 v11.1 using the Copernicus DEM globally.
Brian Kahn, Cameron Bertossa, Xiuhong Chen, Brian Drouin, Erin Hokanson, Xianglei Huang, Tristan L'Ecuyer, Kyle Mattingly, Aronne Merrelli, Tim Michaels, Nate Miller, Federico Donat, Tiziano Maestri, and Michele Martinazzo
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2463, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2463, 2023
Preprint archived
Short summary
Short summary
A cloud detection mask algorithm is developed for the upcoming Polar Radiant Energy in the Far Infrared Experiment (PREFIRE) satellite mission to be launched by NASA in May 2024. The cloud mask is compared to "truth" and is capable of detecting over 90 % of all clouds globally tested with simulated data, and about 87 % of all clouds in the Arctic region.
Thomas E. Taylor, Christopher W. O'Dell, David Baker, Carol Bruegge, Albert Chang, Lars Chapsky, Abhishek Chatterjee, Cecilia Cheng, Frédéric Chevallier, David Crisp, Lan Dang, Brian Drouin, Annmarie Eldering, Liang Feng, Brendan Fisher, Dejian Fu, Michael Gunson, Vance Haemmerle, Graziela R. Keller, Matthäus Kiel, Le Kuai, Thomas Kurosu, Alyn Lambert, Joshua Laughner, Richard Lee, Junjie Liu, Lucas Mandrake, Yuliya Marchetti, Gregory McGarragh, Aronne Merrelli, Robert R. Nelson, Greg Osterman, Fabiano Oyafuso, Paul I. Palmer, Vivienne H. Payne, Robert Rosenberg, Peter Somkuti, Gary Spiers, Cathy To, Brad Weir, Paul O. Wennberg, Shanshan Yu, and Jia Zong
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3173–3209, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3173-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3173-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 and 3 (OCO-2 and OCO-3, respectively) provide complementary spatiotemporal coverage from a sun-synchronous and precession orbit, respectively. Estimates of total column carbon dioxide (XCO2) derived from the two sensors using the same retrieval algorithm show broad consistency over a 2.5-year overlapping time record. This suggests that data from the two satellites may be used together for scientific analysis.
Steven T. Massie, Heather Cronk, Aronne Merrelli, Sebastian Schmidt, and Steffen Mauceri
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2145–2166, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2145-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2145-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
This paper provides insights into the effects of clouds on Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) measurements of CO2. Calculations are carried out that indicate the extent to which this satellite experiment underestimates CO2, due to these cloud effects, as a function of the distance between the surface observation footprint and the nearest cloud. The paper discusses how to lessen the influence of these cloud effects.
Emily Bell, Christopher W. O'Dell, Thomas E. Taylor, Aronne Merrelli, Robert R. Nelson, Matthäus Kiel, Annmarie Eldering, Robert Rosenberg, and Brendan Fisher
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 109–133, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-109-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-109-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
A small percentage of data from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) instrument has been shown to have a geometry-related bias in the earliest public data release. This work shows that the bias is due to a complex interplay of aerosols and viewing geometry and is largely mitigated in the latest data version through improved bias correction and quality filtering.
Thomas E. Taylor, Christopher W. O'Dell, David Crisp, Akhiko Kuze, Hannakaisa Lindqvist, Paul O. Wennberg, Abhishek Chatterjee, Michael Gunson, Annmarie Eldering, Brendan Fisher, Matthäus Kiel, Robert R. Nelson, Aronne Merrelli, Greg Osterman, Frédéric Chevallier, Paul I. Palmer, Liang Feng, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Manvendra K. Dubey, Dietrich G. Feist, Omaira E. García, David W. T. Griffith, Frank Hase, Laura T. Iraci, Rigel Kivi, Cheng Liu, Martine De Mazière, Isamu Morino, Justus Notholt, Young-Suk Oh, Hirofumi Ohyama, David F. Pollard, Markus Rettinger, Matthias Schneider, Coleen M. Roehl, Mahesh Kumar Sha, Kei Shiomi, Kimberly Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Té, Voltaire A. Velazco, Mihalis Vrekoussis, Thorsten Warneke, and Debra Wunch
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 325–360, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-325-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-325-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We provide an analysis of an 11-year record of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations derived using an optimal estimation retrieval algorithm on measurements made by the GOSAT satellite. The new product (version 9) shows improvement over the previous version (v7.3) as evaluated against independent estimates of CO2 from ground-based sensors and atmospheric inversion systems. We also compare the new GOSAT CO2 values to collocated estimates from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2.
Steven T. Massie, Heather Cronk, Aronne Merrelli, Christopher O'Dell, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Hong Chen, and David Baker
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1475–1499, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1475-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1475-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The OCO-2 science team is working to retrieve CO2 measurements that can be used by the carbon cycle community to calculate regional sources and sinks of CO2. The retrieved data, however, are in need of improvements in accuracy. This paper discusses several ways in which 3D cloud metrics (such as the distance of a measurement to the nearest cloud) can be used to account for cloud effects in the OCO-2 CO2 data files.
Robert R. Nelson, Annmarie Eldering, David Crisp, Aronne J. Merrelli, and Christopher W. O'Dell
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 6889–6899, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6889-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6889-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Measurements of surface wind speed over oceans are scientifically useful. Here we show that the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), originally designed to measure carbon dioxide using reflected sunlight, can also accurately and precisely measure wind speed. OCO-2's high spatial resolution means that it can observe close to coastlines and therefore be used to study coastal wind processes and inform related economic sectors.
Christopher W. O'Dell, Annmarie Eldering, Paul O. Wennberg, David Crisp, Michael R. Gunson, Brendan Fisher, Christian Frankenberg, Matthäus Kiel, Hannakaisa Lindqvist, Lukas Mandrake, Aronne Merrelli, Vijay Natraj, Robert R. Nelson, Gregory B. Osterman, Vivienne H. Payne, Thomas E. Taylor, Debra Wunch, Brian J. Drouin, Fabiano Oyafuso, Albert Chang, James McDuffie, Michael Smyth, David F. Baker, Sourish Basu, Frédéric Chevallier, Sean M. R. Crowell, Liang Feng, Paul I. Palmer, Mavendra Dubey, Omaira E. García, David W. T. Griffith, Frank Hase, Laura T. Iraci, Rigel Kivi, Isamu Morino, Justus Notholt, Hirofumi Ohyama, Christof Petri, Coleen M. Roehl, Mahesh K. Sha, Kimberly Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Te, Osamu Uchino, and Voltaire A. Velazco
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 6539–6576, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-6539-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-6539-2018, 2018
Claire Pettersen, Ralf Bennartz, Aronne J. Merrelli, Matthew D. Shupe, David D. Turner, and Von P. Walden
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 4715–4735, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-4715-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-4715-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
A novel method for classifying Arctic precipitation using ground based remote sensors is presented. The classification reveals two distinct, primary regimes of precipitation over the central Greenland Ice Sheet: snowfall coupled to deep, fully glaciated ice clouds or to shallow, mixed-phase clouds. The ice clouds are associated with low-pressure storm systems from the southeast, while the mixed-phase clouds slowly propagate from the southwest along a quiescent flow.
Claire Pettersen, Ralf Bennartz, Mark S. Kulie, Aronne J. Merrelli, Matthew D. Shupe, and David D. Turner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 4743–4756, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-4743-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-4743-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
We examined four summers of data from a ground-based atmospheric science instrument suite at Summit Station, Greenland, to isolate the signature of the ice precipitation. By using a combination of instruments with different specialities, we identified a passive microwave signature of the ice precipitation. This ice signature compares well to models using synthetic data characteristic of the site.
Nicole Jacobs, Christopher W. O'Dell, Thomas E. Taylor, Thomas L. Logan, Brendan Byrne, Matthäus Kiel, Rigel Kivi, Pauli Heikkinen, Aronne Merrelli, Vivienne H. Payne, and Abhishek Chatterjee
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1375–1401, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1375-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1375-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The accuracy of trace gas retrievals from spaceborne observations, like those from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2), are sensitive to the referenced digital elevation model (DEM). Therefore, we evaluate several global DEMs, used in versions 10 and 11 of the OCO-2 retrieval along with the Copernicus DEM. We explore the impacts of changing the DEM on biases in OCO-2-retrieved XCO2 and inferred CO2 fluxes. Our findings led to an update to OCO-2 v11.1 using the Copernicus DEM globally.
Brian Kahn, Cameron Bertossa, Xiuhong Chen, Brian Drouin, Erin Hokanson, Xianglei Huang, Tristan L'Ecuyer, Kyle Mattingly, Aronne Merrelli, Tim Michaels, Nate Miller, Federico Donat, Tiziano Maestri, and Michele Martinazzo
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2463, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2463, 2023
Preprint archived
Short summary
Short summary
A cloud detection mask algorithm is developed for the upcoming Polar Radiant Energy in the Far Infrared Experiment (PREFIRE) satellite mission to be launched by NASA in May 2024. The cloud mask is compared to "truth" and is capable of detecting over 90 % of all clouds globally tested with simulated data, and about 87 % of all clouds in the Arctic region.
Thomas E. Taylor, Christopher W. O'Dell, David Baker, Carol Bruegge, Albert Chang, Lars Chapsky, Abhishek Chatterjee, Cecilia Cheng, Frédéric Chevallier, David Crisp, Lan Dang, Brian Drouin, Annmarie Eldering, Liang Feng, Brendan Fisher, Dejian Fu, Michael Gunson, Vance Haemmerle, Graziela R. Keller, Matthäus Kiel, Le Kuai, Thomas Kurosu, Alyn Lambert, Joshua Laughner, Richard Lee, Junjie Liu, Lucas Mandrake, Yuliya Marchetti, Gregory McGarragh, Aronne Merrelli, Robert R. Nelson, Greg Osterman, Fabiano Oyafuso, Paul I. Palmer, Vivienne H. Payne, Robert Rosenberg, Peter Somkuti, Gary Spiers, Cathy To, Brad Weir, Paul O. Wennberg, Shanshan Yu, and Jia Zong
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3173–3209, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3173-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3173-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 and 3 (OCO-2 and OCO-3, respectively) provide complementary spatiotemporal coverage from a sun-synchronous and precession orbit, respectively. Estimates of total column carbon dioxide (XCO2) derived from the two sensors using the same retrieval algorithm show broad consistency over a 2.5-year overlapping time record. This suggests that data from the two satellites may be used together for scientific analysis.
Steven T. Massie, Heather Cronk, Aronne Merrelli, Sebastian Schmidt, and Steffen Mauceri
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2145–2166, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2145-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2145-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
This paper provides insights into the effects of clouds on Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) measurements of CO2. Calculations are carried out that indicate the extent to which this satellite experiment underestimates CO2, due to these cloud effects, as a function of the distance between the surface observation footprint and the nearest cloud. The paper discusses how to lessen the influence of these cloud effects.
Emily Bell, Christopher W. O'Dell, Thomas E. Taylor, Aronne Merrelli, Robert R. Nelson, Matthäus Kiel, Annmarie Eldering, Robert Rosenberg, and Brendan Fisher
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 109–133, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-109-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-109-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
A small percentage of data from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) instrument has been shown to have a geometry-related bias in the earliest public data release. This work shows that the bias is due to a complex interplay of aerosols and viewing geometry and is largely mitigated in the latest data version through improved bias correction and quality filtering.
Thomas E. Taylor, Christopher W. O'Dell, David Crisp, Akhiko Kuze, Hannakaisa Lindqvist, Paul O. Wennberg, Abhishek Chatterjee, Michael Gunson, Annmarie Eldering, Brendan Fisher, Matthäus Kiel, Robert R. Nelson, Aronne Merrelli, Greg Osterman, Frédéric Chevallier, Paul I. Palmer, Liang Feng, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Manvendra K. Dubey, Dietrich G. Feist, Omaira E. García, David W. T. Griffith, Frank Hase, Laura T. Iraci, Rigel Kivi, Cheng Liu, Martine De Mazière, Isamu Morino, Justus Notholt, Young-Suk Oh, Hirofumi Ohyama, David F. Pollard, Markus Rettinger, Matthias Schneider, Coleen M. Roehl, Mahesh Kumar Sha, Kei Shiomi, Kimberly Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Té, Voltaire A. Velazco, Mihalis Vrekoussis, Thorsten Warneke, and Debra Wunch
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 325–360, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-325-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-325-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We provide an analysis of an 11-year record of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations derived using an optimal estimation retrieval algorithm on measurements made by the GOSAT satellite. The new product (version 9) shows improvement over the previous version (v7.3) as evaluated against independent estimates of CO2 from ground-based sensors and atmospheric inversion systems. We also compare the new GOSAT CO2 values to collocated estimates from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2.
Heather Guy, Ian M. Brooks, Ken S. Carslaw, Benjamin J. Murray, Von P. Walden, Matthew D. Shupe, Claire Pettersen, David D. Turner, Christopher J. Cox, William D. Neff, Ralf Bennartz, and Ryan R. Neely III
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15351–15374, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15351-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15351-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We present the first full year of surface aerosol number concentration measurements from the central Greenland Ice Sheet. Aerosol concentrations here have a distinct seasonal cycle from those at lower-altitude Arctic sites, which is driven by large-scale atmospheric circulation. Our results can be used to help understand the role aerosols might play in Greenland surface melt through the modification of cloud properties. This is crucial in a rapidly changing region where observations are sparse.
Steven T. Massie, Heather Cronk, Aronne Merrelli, Christopher O'Dell, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Hong Chen, and David Baker
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1475–1499, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1475-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1475-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The OCO-2 science team is working to retrieve CO2 measurements that can be used by the carbon cycle community to calculate regional sources and sinks of CO2. The retrieved data, however, are in need of improvements in accuracy. This paper discusses several ways in which 3D cloud metrics (such as the distance of a measurement to the nearest cloud) can be used to account for cloud effects in the OCO-2 CO2 data files.
Robert R. Nelson, Annmarie Eldering, David Crisp, Aronne J. Merrelli, and Christopher W. O'Dell
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 6889–6899, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6889-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6889-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Measurements of surface wind speed over oceans are scientifically useful. Here we show that the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), originally designed to measure carbon dioxide using reflected sunlight, can also accurately and precisely measure wind speed. OCO-2's high spatial resolution means that it can observe close to coastlines and therefore be used to study coastal wind processes and inform related economic sectors.
Susan S. Kulawik, Chris O'Dell, Robert R. Nelson, and Thomas E. Taylor
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 5317–5334, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-5317-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-5317-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
This work investigates errors in CO2 near-infrared estimates retrieved from simulated radiances. We find that interferent errors are underpredicted and that nonlinearity causes significant errors.
Ralf Bennartz, Frank Fell, Claire Pettersen, Matthew D. Shupe, and Dirk Schuettemeyer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 8101–8121, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8101-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8101-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is rapidly melting. Snowfall is the only source of ice mass over the GrIS. We use satellite observations to assess how much snow on average falls over the GrIS and what the annual cycle and spatial distribution of snowfall is. We find the annual mean snowfall over the GrIS inferred from CloudSat to be 34 ± 7.5 cm yr−1 liquid equivalent.
Annmarie Eldering, Thomas E. Taylor, Christopher W. O'Dell, and Ryan Pavlick
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 2341–2370, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2341-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2341-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) is scheduled for a 2019 launch to the International Space Station (ISS). It is expected to continue the record of column carbon dioxide (XCO2) and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) measurements from space used to study and constrain the Earth's carbon cycle. This work highlights the measurement objectives and uses simulated data to show that the expected instrument performance is on par with that of OCO-2.
Christopher W. O'Dell, Annmarie Eldering, Paul O. Wennberg, David Crisp, Michael R. Gunson, Brendan Fisher, Christian Frankenberg, Matthäus Kiel, Hannakaisa Lindqvist, Lukas Mandrake, Aronne Merrelli, Vijay Natraj, Robert R. Nelson, Gregory B. Osterman, Vivienne H. Payne, Thomas E. Taylor, Debra Wunch, Brian J. Drouin, Fabiano Oyafuso, Albert Chang, James McDuffie, Michael Smyth, David F. Baker, Sourish Basu, Frédéric Chevallier, Sean M. R. Crowell, Liang Feng, Paul I. Palmer, Mavendra Dubey, Omaira E. García, David W. T. Griffith, Frank Hase, Laura T. Iraci, Rigel Kivi, Isamu Morino, Justus Notholt, Hirofumi Ohyama, Christof Petri, Coleen M. Roehl, Mahesh K. Sha, Kimberly Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Te, Osamu Uchino, and Voltaire A. Velazco
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 6539–6576, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-6539-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-6539-2018, 2018
Chellappan Seethala, Jan Fokke Meirink, Ákos Horváth, Ralf Bennartz, and Rob Roebeling
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 13283–13304, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13283-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13283-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
We compared the microphysical properties of South Atlantic stratocumulus (Sc) from three different satellite instruments (SEVIRI, TMI, MODIS). The liquid water path (LWP) and its diurnal cycle from the three datasets agreed very well in overcast, smoke-free scenes. LWP showed a decrease from an early morning peak to a late afternoon minimum, after which it increased until morning. The presence of smoke aloft Sc, however, negatively biased the LWP retrieved by the visible/near-infrared technique.
Claire Pettersen, Ralf Bennartz, Aronne J. Merrelli, Matthew D. Shupe, David D. Turner, and Von P. Walden
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 4715–4735, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-4715-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-4715-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
A novel method for classifying Arctic precipitation using ground based remote sensors is presented. The classification reveals two distinct, primary regimes of precipitation over the central Greenland Ice Sheet: snowfall coupled to deep, fully glaciated ice clouds or to shallow, mixed-phase clouds. The ice clouds are associated with low-pressure storm systems from the southeast, while the mixed-phase clouds slowly propagate from the southwest along a quiescent flow.
Ralf Bennartz and John Rausch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 9815–9836, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9815-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9815-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
Cloud droplet number concentration is linked to air pollution levels via indirect aerosol effects. The climatological results presented here provide constraints on cloud droplet number concentration globally, thereby helping to evaluate global climate models and study the impact of pollution regionally and globally.
John Rausch, Kerry Meyer, Ralf Bennartz, and Steven Platnick
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 2105–2116, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2105-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2105-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
This paper documents the observed differences in the aggregated (Level-3) cloud droplet effective radius and droplet number concentration estimates inferred from the Aqua–MODIS cloud product collections 5.1 and 6 for warm oceanic cloud scenes over the year 2008. We note significant differences in effective radius and droplet concentration between the two products and discuss the algorithmic and calibration changes which may contribute to observed results.
Ralf Bennartz, Heidrun Höschen, Bruno Picard, Marc Schröder, Martin Stengel, Oliver Sus, Bojan Bojkov, Stefano Casadio, Hannes Diedrich, Salomon Eliasson, Frank Fell, Jürgen Fischer, Rainer Hollmann, Rene Preusker, and Ulrika Willén
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 1387–1402, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1387-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1387-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
The microwave radiometers (MWR) on board ERS-1, ERS-2, and Envisat provide a continuous time series of brightness temperature observations between 1991 and 2012. Here we report on a new total column water vapour (TCWV) and wet tropospheric correction (WTC) dataset that builds on this time series. The dataset is publicly available under doi:10.5676/DWD_EMIR/V001.
Annmarie Eldering, Chris W. O'Dell, Paul O. Wennberg, David Crisp, Michael R. Gunson, Camille Viatte, Charles Avis, Amy Braverman, Rebecca Castano, Albert Chang, Lars Chapsky, Cecilia Cheng, Brian Connor, Lan Dang, Gary Doran, Brendan Fisher, Christian Frankenberg, Dejian Fu, Robert Granat, Jonathan Hobbs, Richard A. M. Lee, Lukas Mandrake, James McDuffie, Charles E. Miller, Vicky Myers, Vijay Natraj, Denis O'Brien, Gregory B. Osterman, Fabiano Oyafuso, Vivienne H. Payne, Harold R. Pollock, Igor Polonsky, Coleen M. Roehl, Robert Rosenberg, Florian Schwandner, Mike Smyth, Vivian Tang, Thomas E. Taylor, Cathy To, Debra Wunch, and Jan Yoshimizu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 549–563, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-549-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-549-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
This paper describes the measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide collected in the first 18 months of the satellite mission known as the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2). The paper shows maps of the carbon dioxide data, data density, and other data fields that illustrate the data quality. This mission has collected a more precise, more dense dataset of carbon dioxide then we have ever had previously.
David Crisp, Harold R. Pollock, Robert Rosenberg, Lars Chapsky, Richard A. M. Lee, Fabiano A. Oyafuso, Christian Frankenberg, Christopher W. O'Dell, Carol J. Bruegge, Gary B. Doran, Annmarie Eldering, Brendan M. Fisher, Dejian Fu, Michael R. Gunson, Lukas Mandrake, Gregory B. Osterman, Florian M. Schwandner, Kang Sun, Tommy E. Taylor, Paul O. Wennberg, and Debra Wunch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 59–81, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-59-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-59-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 carries and points a three-channel imaging grating spectrometer designed to collect high-resolution spectra of reflected sunlight within the molecular oxygen A-band at 0.765 microns and the carbon dioxide bands at 1.61 and 2.06 microns. Here, we describe the OCO-2 instrument, its data products, and its performance during its first 18 months in orbit.
Brian Connor, Hartmut Bösch, James McDuffie, Tommy Taylor, Dejian Fu, Christian Frankenberg, Chris O'Dell, Vivienne H. Payne, Michael Gunson, Randy Pollock, Jonathan Hobbs, Fabiano Oyafuso, and Yibo Jiang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 5227–5238, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5227-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5227-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
We present an analysis of uncertainties in global measurements of the column-averaged dry-air mole fraction of CO2 (XCO2) by the satellite OCO-2. The analysis is based on our best estimates for uncertainties in the OCO-2 operational algorithm and its inputs. From these results we estimate the "variable error", which differs between soundings, to infer the error in the difference of XCO2 between any two soundings. Variable errors are usually < 1 ppm over ocean and ~ 0.5–2 ppm over land.
Christian Frankenberg, Susan S. Kulawik, Steven C. Wofsy, Frédéric Chevallier, Bruce Daube, Eric A. Kort, Christopher O'Dell, Edward T. Olsen, and Gregory Osterman
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 7867–7878, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-7867-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-7867-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
We use observations from the HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations (HIPPO) flights from January 2009 through September 2011 to validate CO2 measurements from satellites (GOSAT, TES, AIRS) and atmospheric inversion models (CarbonTracker CT2013B, MACC v13r1).
Akihiko Kuze, Hiroshi Suto, Kei Shiomi, Shuji Kawakami, Makoto Tanaka, Yoko Ueda, Akira Deguchi, Jun Yoshida, Yoshifumi Yamamoto, Fumie Kataoka, Thomas E. Taylor, and Henry L. Buijs
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 2445–2461, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2445-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2445-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
A more than 6-year data set has been acquired by TANSO-FTS onboard GOSAT. This paper provides updates on the performance and describes important changes to the data product for the typical accuracy of retrieved CO2 and CH4 of 2 ppm and 13 ppb, respectively. The V201 Level 1B have long-term uniform quality and provide consistent retrieval accuracy even after the three anomalies of the satellite system. In addition, we discuss the unique observation abilities by an agile pointing mechanism.
Claire Pettersen, Ralf Bennartz, Mark S. Kulie, Aronne J. Merrelli, Matthew D. Shupe, and David D. Turner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 4743–4756, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-4743-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-4743-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
We examined four summers of data from a ground-based atmospheric science instrument suite at Summit Station, Greenland, to isolate the signature of the ice precipitation. By using a combination of instruments with different specialities, we identified a passive microwave signature of the ice precipitation. This ice signature compares well to models using synthetic data characteristic of the site.
Robert R. Nelson, Christopher W. O'Dell, Thomas E. Taylor, Lukas Mandrake, and Mike Smyth
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 1671–1684, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1671-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1671-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
In this work, we test the hypothesis that clear-sky retrievals may perform as well as full-physics retrievals for very clear scenes. It was found that for simulated OCO-2 measurements, the clear-sky retrieval had errors comparable to those of the full-physics retrieval. For real GOSAT data, the clear-sky retrieval had errors 0–20 % larger than the full-physics retrieval over land and 20–35 % larger over ocean. This work implies that clear-sky retrievals may be more useful than previously assumed.
Minqiang Zhou, Bart Dils, Pucai Wang, Rob Detmers, Yukio Yoshida, Christopher W. O'Dell, Dietrich G. Feist, Voltaire Almario Velazco, Matthias Schneider, and Martine De Mazière
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 1415–1430, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1415-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1415-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
The sun-glint XCO2 and XCH4 products (“ocean data”) of thermal and near infrared sensor for carbon observations Fourier transform spectrometer (TANSO-FTS) on board the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) from several retrieval algorithms is compared with the FTIR measurements form near-ocean Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) sites, and the results indicate that the ocean data show a good agreement with TCCON measurements.
Thomas E. Taylor, Christopher W. O'Dell, Christian Frankenberg, Philip T. Partain, Heather Q. Cronk, Andrey Savtchenko, Robert R. Nelson, Emily J. Rosenthal, Albert Y. Chang, Brenden Fisher, Gregory B. Osterman, Randy H. Pollock, David Crisp, Annmarie Eldering, and Michael R. Gunson
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 973–989, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-973-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-973-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) is providing approximately 1 million soundings per day of the total column of carbon dioxide (XCO2). The retrieval of XCO2 can only be performed for soundings sufficiently free of cloud and aerosol. This work highlights comparisons of OCO-2 cloud screening algorithms to the MODIS cloud mask product. We find agreement approximately 85 % of the time with some significant spatial and small seasonal dependencies.
T. M. Gray and R. Bennartz
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 5089–5097, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-5089-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-5089-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
Volcanic ash poses a serious threat to aircraft traffic. A simple neural-network based technique was developed to detect volcanic ash from space using satellite infrared observations. A validation study shows promising results for several individual case studies. Issues remain near the edge of the satellite's field of view as well as in situations where ash is mixed with meteorological clouds.
H. Lindqvist, C. W. O'Dell, S. Basu, H. Boesch, F. Chevallier, N. Deutscher, L. Feng, B. Fisher, F. Hase, M. Inoue, R. Kivi, I. Morino, P. I. Palmer, R. Parker, M. Schneider, R. Sussmann, and Y. Yoshida
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 13023–13040, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-13023-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-13023-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration varies seasonally mainly due to plant photosynthesis in the Northern Hemisphere. We found that the satellite GOSAT can capture this variability from space to within 1ppm. We also found that models can differ by more than 1ppm. This implies that the satellite measurements could be useful in evaluating models and their prior estimates of carbon dioxide sources and sinks.
A. Lattanzio, F. Fell, R. Bennartz, I. F. Trigo, and J. Schulz
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 4561–4571, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4561-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4561-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
EUMETSAT has generated a surface albedo data set climate data record, spanning over more than 2 decades, from measurements acquired by Meteosat First Generation satellites. EUMETSAT coordinated a study for the validation of such a data record. In the validation report, the full set of results, including comparison with in situ measurements and satellites, was presented. A method of increasing the quality of the data set, removing cloud-contaminated pixels, is presented.
U. Hamann, A. Walther, B. Baum, R. Bennartz, L. Bugliaro, M. Derrien, P. N. Francis, A. Heidinger, S. Joro, A. Kniffka, H. Le Gléau, M. Lockhoff, H.-J. Lutz, J. F. Meirink, P. Minnis, R. Palikonda, R. Roebeling, A. Thoss, S. Platnick, P. Watts, and G. Wind
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 2839–2867, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2839-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2839-2014, 2014
I. N. Polonsky, D. M. O'Brien, J. B. Kumer, C. W. O'Dell, and the geoCARB Team
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 959–981, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-959-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-959-2014, 2014
A. Kniffka, M. Stengel, M. Lockhoff, R. Bennartz, and R. Hollmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 887–905, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-887-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-887-2014, 2014
Related subject area
Subject: Gases | Technique: Remote Sensing | Topic: Validation and Intercomparisons
Validation of the version 4.5 MAESTRO ozone and NO2 measurements
Advancing CH4 and N2O retrieval strategies for NDACC/IRWG high-resolution direct-sun FTIR Observations
Long-term evolution of the calibration constant on a mobile/field campaign water vapour Raman lidar
Benchmarking data-driven inversion methods for the estimation of local CO2 emissions from synthetic satellite images of XCO2 and NO2
Validation of 12 years (2008–2019) of IASI-A CO with IAGOS aircraft observations
Diurnal variations of NO2 tropospheric vertical column density over the Seoul metropolitan area from the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS): seasonal differences and the influence of the a priori NO2 profile
Validation of ACE-FTS version 5.2 ozone data with ozonesonde measurements
Intercomparison of long-term ground-based measurements of total, tropospheric, and stratospheric ozone at Lauder, New Zealand
First evaluation of the GEMS glyoxal products against TROPOMI and ground-based measurements
Validation of GEMS tropospheric NO2 columns and their diurnal variation with ground-based DOAS measurements
Using open-path dual-comb spectroscopy to monitor methane emissions from simulated grazing cattle
Atmospheric horizontal gradients measured with eight co-located GNSS stations and a microwave radiometer
Greenhouse gas column observations from a portable spectrometer in Uganda
Independent validation of IASI/MetOp-A LMD and RAL CH4 products using CAMS model, in situ profiles, and ground-based FTIR measurements
Joint spectral retrievals of ozone with Suomi NPP CrIS augmented by S5P/TROPOMI
An evaluation of atmospheric absorption models at millimetre and sub-millimetre wavelengths using airborne observations
Applicability of the inverse dispersion method to measure emissions from animal housings
5 years of Sentinel-5P TROPOMI operational ozone profiling and geophysical validation using ozonesonde and lidar ground-based networks
Using a portable FTIR spectrometer to evaluate the consistency of Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) measurements on a global scale: the Collaborative Carbon Column Observing Network (COCCON) travel standard
Comparison of the H2O, HDO and δD stratospheric climatologies between the MIPAS-ESA V8, MIPAS-IMK V5 and ACE-FTS V4.1/4.2 satellite datasets
TROPESS-CrIS CO single-pixel vertical profiles: intercomparisons with MOPITT and model simulations for 2020 western US wildfires
TOLNet validation of satellite ozone profiles in the troposphere: impact of retrieval wavelengths
An uncertainty methodology for solar occultation flux measurements: ammonia emissions from livestock production
Validation of Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) chlorodifluoromethane (HCFC-22) in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere
First validation of high-resolution satellite-derived methane emissions from an active gas leak in the UK
Ship- and aircraft-based XCH4 over oceans as a new tool for satellite validation
Single-blind test of nine methane-sensing satellite systems from three continents
Water vapor measurements inside clouds and storms using a differential absorption radar
Evaluation of the first year of Pandora NO2 measurements over Beijing and application to satellite validation
Validation of MUSES NH3 observations from AIRS and CrIS against aircraft measurements from DISCOVER-AQ and a surface network in the Magic Valley
Performance and sensitivity of column-wise and pixel-wise methane retrievals for imaging spectrometers
Methane point source quantification using MethaneAIR: a new airborne imaging spectrometer
Evaluation of total ozone measurements from Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS)
To new heights by flying low: comparison of aircraft vertical NO2 profiles to model simulations and implications for TROPOMI NO2 retrievals
Local comparisons of tropospheric ozone: vertical soundings at two neighbouring stations in southern Bavaria
Ground-based Multi-AXis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) observations of NO2 and H2CO at Kinshasa and comparisons with TROPOMI observations
Total column ozone trends from the NASA Merged Ozone time series 1979 to 2021 showing latitude-dependent ozone recovery dates (1994 to 1998)
The SPARC water vapour assessment II: biases and drifts of water vapour satellite data records with respect to frost point hygrometer records
Vicarious calibration of the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) short-wave infrared (SWIR) module over the Railroad Valley Playa
First-time comparison between NO2 vertical columns from Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) and Pandora measurements
A blended TROPOMI+GOSAT satellite data product for atmospheric methane using machine learning to correct retrieval biases
Evaluating the consistency between OCO-2 and OCO-3 XCO2 estimates derived from the NASA ACOS version 10 retrieval algorithm
OLCI-A/B tandem phase: evaluation of FLuorescence EXplorer (FLEX)-like radiances and estimation of systematic differences between OLCI-A and OLCI-FLEX
Multi-parameter dynamical diagnostics for upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric studies
An approach to track instrument calibration and produce consistent products with the version-8 total column ozone algorithm (V8TOZ)
Satellite remote-sensing capability to assess tropospheric-column ratios of formaldehyde and nitrogen dioxide: case study during the Long Island Sound Tropospheric Ozone Study 2018 (LISTOS 2018) field campaign
Validation of Sentinel-5P TROPOMI tropospheric NO2 products by comparison with NO2 measurements from airborne imaging DOAS, ground-based stationary DOAS, and mobile car DOAS measurements during the S5P-VAL-DE-Ruhr campaign
Evaluation of open- and closed-path sampling systems for the determination of emission rates of NH3 and CH4 with inverse dispersion modeling
Performance of AIRS ozone retrieval over the central Himalayas: use of ozonesonde and other satellite datasets
Solar occultation measurement of mesospheric ozone by SAGE III/ISS: impact of variations along the line of sight caused by photochemistry
Paul S. Jeffery, James R. Drummond, C. Thomas McElroy, Kaley A. Walker, and Jiansheng Zou
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 569–602, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-569-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-569-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The MAESTRO instrument has been monitoring ozone and NO2 since February 2004. A new version of these data products has recently been released; however, these new products must be validated against other datasets to ensure their validity. This study presents such an assessment, using measurements from 11 satellite instruments to characterize the new MAESTRO products. In the stratosphere, good agreement is found for ozone and acceptable agreement is found for NO2 with these other datasets.
Ivan Ortega, James W. Hannigan, Bianca C. Baier, Kathryn McKain, and Dan Smale
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3815, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3815, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The study evaluates retrieval strategies for atmospheric CH4 and N2O using high-resolution FTIR observations and comparing results with long-term AirCore and aircraft measurements. Updated a priori data and spectroscopic databases (HITRAN 2020, ATM 2020) improve accuracy. Findings highlight low biases within a few percent, quantified uncertainties, and consistent retrievals for Boulder, Colorado, extended to Lauder, New Zealand, advancing harmonized approaches for NDACC sites.
Patrick Chazette, Julien Totems, and Frédéric Laly
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3583, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3583, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The use of active remote sensing instruments to sample the atmospheric environment requires accurate calibration that is stable over time so that measurements are reproducible. This is the case for measurements of atmospheric water vapour using Raman lidar, which are of growing interest in the context of climate risks such as extreme precipitation. This study addresses this issue. It is based on 6 campaigns spread over a period of 7 years between 2016 and 2022.
Diego Santaren, Janne Hakkarainen, Gerrit Kuhlmann, Erik Koene, Frédéric Chevallier, Iolanda Ialongo, Hannakaisa Lindqvist, Janne Nurmela, Johanna Tamminen, Laia Amorós, Dominik Brunner, and Grégoire Broquet
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 211–239, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-211-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-211-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This study evaluates data-driven inversion methods for estimating CO2 emissions from local sources, such as power plants and cities, using meteorological data and XCO2 and NO2 satellite images rather than atmospheric transport modeling. We assess and compare the performance of five different methods using simulations of 1 year of satellite images, taken from the upcoming Copernicus CO2 Monitoring Mission, covering 15 power plants and the city of Berlin, Germany.
Brice Barret, Pierre Loicq, Eric Le Flochmoën, Yasmine Bennouna, Juliette Hadji-Lazaro, Daniel Hurtmans, and Bastien Sauvage
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 129–149, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-129-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-129-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Profiles of carbon monoxide (CO) retrieved from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) with the SOftware for a Fast Retrieval of IASI Data (SOFRID) and Fast Optimal Retrievals on Layers for IASI (FORLI) are validated with 8500 observations at 33 airports from the In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System (IAGOS) for 2008–2019. IASI retrievals underestimate CO, with stronger bias in the middle to upper troposphere for SOFRID and in the lower troposphere for FORLI.
Seunghwan Seo, Si-Wan Kim, Kyoung-Min Kim, Andreas Richter, Kezia Lange, John P. Burrows, Junsung Park, Hyunkee Hong, Hanlim Lee, Ukkyo Jeong, Jung-Hun Woo, and Jhoon Kim
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 115–128, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-115-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-115-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Over the Seoul metropolitan area, tropospheric NO2 vertical column densities from the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer show distinct seasonal features. Also, varying a priori data have substantial impacts on the observed NO2 columns. The a priori data from different chemical transport models resulted in differences of up to −18.3 %. Notably, diurnal patterns of observed NO2 columns are similar for all datasets, although their a priori data exhibit contrasting diurnal patterns.
Jiansheng Zou, Kaley A. Walker, Patrick E. Sheese, Chris D. Boone, Ryan M. Stauffer, Anne M. Thompson, and David W. Tarasick
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6983–7005, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6983-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6983-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Ozone measurements from the ACE-FTS satellite instrument have been compared to worldwide balloon-borne ozonesonde profiles using pairs of closely spaced profiles and monthly averaged profiles. ACE-FTS typically measures more ozone in the stratosphere by up to 10 %. The long-term stability of the ACE-FTS ozone data is good, exhibiting small (but non-significant) drifts of less than 3 % per decade in the stratosphere. Lower in the profiles, the calculated drifts are larger (up to 10 % per decade).
Robin Björklund, Corinne Vigouroux, Peter Effertz, Omaira E. García, Alex Geddes, James Hannigan, Koji Miyagawa, Michael Kotkamp, Bavo Langerock, Gerald Nedoluha, Ivan Ortega, Irina Petropavlovskikh, Deniz Poyraz, Richard Querel, John Robinson, Hisako Shiona, Dan Smale, Penny Smale, Roeland Van Malderen, and Martine De Mazière
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6819–6849, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6819-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6819-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Different ground-based ozone measurements from the last 2 decades at Lauder are compared to each other. We want to know why different trends have been observed in the stratosphere. Also, the quality and relevance of tropospheric datasets need to be evaluated. While remaining drifts are still present, our study explains roughly half of the differences in observed trends in previous studies and shows the necessity for continuous review and improvement of the measurements.
Eunjo S. Ha, Rokjin J. Park, Hyeong-Ahn Kwon, Gitaek T. Lee, Sieun D. Lee, Seunga Shin, Dong-Won Lee, Hyunkee Hong, Christophe Lerot, Isabelle De Smedt, Thomas Danckaert, Francois Hendrick, and Hitoshi Irie
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6369–6384, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6369-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6369-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
In this study, we evaluated the GEMS glyoxal products by comparing them with TROPOMI and MAX-DOAS measurements. GEMS and TROPOMI VCDs present similar spatial distributions. Monthly variations in GEMS VCDs and TROPOMI and MAX-DOAS VCDs differ in northeastern Asia, which we attributed to a polluted reference spectrum and high NO2 concentrations. GEMS glyoxal products with unparalleled temporal resolution would enrich our understanding of VOC emissions and diurnal variation.
Kezia Lange, Andreas Richter, Tim Bösch, Bianca Zilker, Miriam Latsch, Lisa K. Behrens, Chisom M. Okafor, Hartmut Bösch, John P. Burrows, Alexis Merlaud, Gaia Pinardi, Caroline Fayt, Martina M. Friedrich, Ermioni Dimitropoulou, Michel Van Roozendael, Steffen Ziegler, Simona Ripperger-Lukosiunaite, Leon Kuhn, Bianca Lauster, Thomas Wagner, Hyunkee Hong, Donghee Kim, Lim-Seok Chang, Kangho Bae, Chang-Keun Song, Jong-Uk Park, and Hanlim Lee
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6315–6344, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6315-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6315-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Instruments for air quality observations on geostationary satellites provide multiple observations per day and allow for the analysis of the diurnal variation of important air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2) over large areas. The South Korean instrument GEMS, launched in February 2020, is the first instrument in geostationary orbit and covers a large part of Asia. Our investigations show the observed diurnal evolution of NO2 at different measurement sites.
Chinthaka Weerasekara, Lindsay C. Morris, Nathan A. Malarich, Fabrizio R. Giorgetta, Daniel I. Herman, Kevin C. Cossel, Nathan R. Newbury, Clenton E. Owensby, Stephen M. Welch, Cosmin Blaga, Brett D. DePaola, Ian Coddington, Brian R. Washburn, and Eduardo A. Santos
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6107–6117, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6107-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6107-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Most methane emissions during the life cycle of beef cattle occur during the grazing phase. Measuring methane in grazing systems is difficult due to the high mobility and low density of animals. This work investigates if dual-comb spectroscopy can measure methane emissions from small cattle herds. An enhancement of 10 nmol mol-1 methane above the atmospheric background was measured, equivalent to 20 head located 60 m away. The calculated methane flux was within 5 % of the actual release rate.
Ning Tong and Gunnar Elgered
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2716, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2716, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The gradients estimated from multi-GNSS data were compared to WVR data. A better agreement is obtained when using WVR data with a smaller value of liquid water content. A weak constraint in GNSS data processing may be desirable for applications with a higher tolerance for formal errors but a greater focus on tracking the variability of water vapour. The averaged GNSS gradients can significantly reduce the random noise which can be used to obtain a more reliable variability of the water vapour.
Neil Humpage, Hartmut Boesch, William Okello, Jia Chen, Florian Dietrich, Mark F. Lunt, Liang Feng, Paul I. Palmer, and Frank Hase
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5679–5707, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5679-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5679-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We used a Bruker EM27/SUN spectrometer within an automated weatherproof enclosure to measure greenhouse gas column concentrations over a 3-month period in Jinja, Uganda. The portability of the EM27/SUN allows us to evaluate satellite and model data in locations not covered by traditional validation networks. This is of particular value in tropical Africa, where extensive terrestrial ecosystems are a significant store of carbon and play a key role in the atmospheric budgets of CO2 and CH4.
Bart Dils, Minqiang Zhou, Claude Camy-Peyret, Martine De Mazière, Yannick Kangah, Bavo Langerock, Pascal Prunet, Carmine Serio, Richard Siddans, and Brian Kerridge
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5491–5524, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5491-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5491-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The paper discusses two very distinct methane products from the IASI instrument aboard the MetOp-A satellite. One (referred to as LMD NLISv8.3) uses a machine-learning approach, while the other (RALv2.0) uses a more conventional optimal estimation approach. We used a variety of model and independent reference measurement data to assess both products' overall quality, their differences, and specific aspects of each product that would benefit from further analysis by the product development teams.
Edward Malina, Kevin W. Bowman, Valentin Kantchev, Le Kuai, Thomas P. Kurosu, Kazuyuki Miyazaki, Vijay Natraj, Gregory B. Osterman, Fabiano Oyafuso, and Matthew D. Thill
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5341–5371, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5341-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5341-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Characterizing the distribution of ozone in the atmosphere is a challenging problem, with current Earth observation satellites using either thermal infrared (TIR) or ultraviolet (UV) instruments, sensitive to different portions of the atmosphere, making it difficult to gain a full picture. In this work, we combine measurements from the TIR and UV instruments Suomi NPP CrIS and Sentinel-5P/TROPOMI to improve sensitivity through the whole atmosphere and improve knowledge of ozone distribution.
Stuart Fox, Vinia Mattioli, Emma Turner, Alan Vance, Domenico Cimini, and Donatello Gallucci
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4957–4978, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4957-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4957-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Airborne observations are used to evaluate two models for absorption and emission by atmospheric gases, including water vapour and oxygen, at microwave and sub-millimetre wavelengths. These models are needed for the Ice Cloud Imager (ICI) on the next generation of European polar-orbiting weather satellites, which measures at frequencies up to 664 GHz. Both models can provide a good match to measurements from airborne radiometers and are sufficiently accurate for use with ICI.
Marcel Bühler, Christoph Häni, Albrecht Neftel, Patrice Bühler, Christof Ammann, and Thomas Kupper
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4649–4658, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4649-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4649-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Methane was released from an artificial source inside a barn to test the applicability of the inverse dispersion method (IDM). Multiple open-path concentration devices and ultrasonic anemometers were used at the site. It is concluded that, for the present study case, the effect of a building and a tree in the main wind axis led to a systematic underestimation of the IDM-derived emission rate probably due to deviations in the wind field and turbulent dispersion from the ideal assumptions.
Arno Keppens, Serena Di Pede, Daan Hubert, Jean-Christopher Lambert, Pepijn Veefkind, Maarten Sneep, Johan De Haan, Mark ter Linden, Thierry Leblanc, Steven Compernolle, Tijl Verhoelst, José Granville, Oindrila Nath, Ann Mari Fjæraa, Ian Boyd, Sander Niemeijer, Roeland Van Malderen, Herman G. J. Smit, Valentin Duflot, Sophie Godin-Beekmann, Bryan J. Johnson, Wolfgang Steinbrecht, David W. Tarasick, Debra E. Kollonige, Ryan M. Stauffer, Anne M. Thompson, Angelika Dehn, and Claus Zehner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3969–3993, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3969-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3969-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The Sentinel-5P satellite operated by the European Space Agency has carried the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) around the Earth since October 2017. This mission also produces atmospheric ozone profile data which are described in detail for May 2018 to April 2023. Independent validation using ground-based reference measurements demonstrates that the operational ozone profile product mostly fully and at least partially complies with all mission requirements.
Benedikt Herkommer, Carlos Alberti, Paolo Castracane, Jia Chen, Angelika Dehn, Florian Dietrich, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Matthias Max Frey, Jochen Groß, Lawson Gillespie, Frank Hase, Isamu Morino, Nasrin Mostafavi Pak, Brittany Walker, and Debra Wunch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3467–3494, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3467-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3467-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The Total Carbon Column Observing Network is a network of ground-based Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometers used mainly for satellite validation. To ensure the highest-quality validation data, the network needs to be highly consistent. This is a major challenge, which so far is solved by site comparisons with airborne in situ measurements. In this work, we describe the use of a portable FTIR spectrometer as a travel standard for evaluating the consistency of TCCON sites.
Karen De Los Ríos, Paulina Ordoñez, Gabriele P. Stiller, Piera Raspollini, Marco Gai, Kaley A. Walker, Cristina Peña-Ortiz, and Luis Acosta
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3401–3418, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3401-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3401-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This study examines newer versions of H2O and HDO retrievals from Envisat/MIPAS and SCISAT/ACE-FTS. Results reveal a better agreement in stratospheric H2O profiles than in HDO profiles. The H2O tape recorder signal is consistent across databases, but δD tape recorder composites show differences that impact the interpretation of water vapour transport. These findings enhance the need for intercomparisons to refine our insights.
Ming Luo, Helen M. Worden, Robert D. Field, Kostas Tsigaridis, and Gregory S. Elsaesser
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2611–2624, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2611-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2611-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The TROPESS CrIS single-pixel CO profile retrievals are compared to the MOPITT CO products in steps of adjusting them to the common a priori assumptions. The two data sets are found to agree within 5 %. We also demonstrated and analyzed the proper steps in evaluating GISS ModelE CO simulations using satellite CO retrieval products for the western US wildfire events in September 2020.
Matthew S. Johnson, Alexei Rozanov, Mark Weber, Nora Mettig, John Sullivan, Michael J. Newchurch, Shi Kuang, Thierry Leblanc, Fernando Chouza, Timothy A. Berkoff, Guillaume Gronoff, Kevin B. Strawbridge, Raul J. Alvarez, Andrew O. Langford, Christoph J. Senff, Guillaume Kirgis, Brandi McCarty, and Larry Twigg
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2559–2582, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2559-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2559-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Monitoring tropospheric ozone (O3), a harmful pollutant negatively impacting human health, is primarily done using ground-based measurements and ozonesondes. However, these observation types lack the coverage to fully understand tropospheric O3. Satellites can retrieve tropospheric ozone with near-daily global coverage; however, they are known to have biases and errors. This study uses ground-based lidars to validate multiple satellites' ability to observe tropospheric O3.
Johan Mellqvist, Nathalia T. Vechi, Charlotte Scheutz, Marc Durif, Francois Gautier, John Johansson, Jerker Samuelsson, Brian Offerle, and Samuel Brohede
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2465–2479, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2465-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2465-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The solar occultation flux method retrieves ammonia gas columns from the solar spectrum. Emissions are obtained by multiplying the integrated plume concentration by the wind speed profile. The methodology for uncertainty estimation was established considering an error budget with systematic and random components, resulting in an expanded uncertainty in the range of 20 % to 30 %. The method was validated in a controlled release, and its application was demonstrated in different farms.
Felicia Kolonjari, Patrick E. Sheese, Kaley A. Walker, Chris D. Boone, David A. Plummer, Andreas Engel, Stephen A. Montzka, David E. Oram, Tanja Schuck, Gabriele P. Stiller, and Geoffrey C. Toon
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2429–2449, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2429-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2429-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The Canadian Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier transform spectrometer (ACE-FTS) satellite instrument is currently providing the only vertically resolved chlorodifluoromethane (HCFC-22) measurements from space. This study assesses the most current ACE-FTS HCFC-22 data product in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, as well as modelled HCFC-22 from a 39-year run of the Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model (CMAM39) in the same region.
Emily Dowd, Alistair J. Manning, Bryn Orth-Lashley, Marianne Girard, James France, Rebecca E. Fisher, Dave Lowry, Mathias Lanoisellé, Joseph R. Pitt, Kieran M. Stanley, Simon O'Doherty, Dickon Young, Glen Thistlethwaite, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Emanuel Gloor, and Chris Wilson
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1599–1615, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1599-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1599-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We provide the first validation of the satellite-derived emission estimates using surface-based mobile greenhouse gas surveys of an active gas leak detected near Cheltenham, UK. GHGSat’s emission estimates broadly agree with the surface-based mobile survey and steps were taken to fix the leak, highlighting the importance of satellite data in identifying emissions and helping to reduce our human impact on climate change.
Astrid Müller, Hiroshi Tanimoto, Takafumi Sugita, Prabir K. Patra, Shin-ichiro Nakaoka, Toshinobu Machida, Isamu Morino, André Butz, and Kei Shiomi
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1297–1316, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1297-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1297-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Satellite CH4 observations with high accuracy are needed to understand changes in atmospheric CH4 concentrations. But over oceans, reference data are limited. We combine various ship and aircraft observations with the help of atmospheric chemistry models to derive observation-based column-averaged mixing ratios of CH4 (obs. XCH4). We discuss three different approaches and demonstrate the applicability of the new reference dataset for carbon cycle studies and satellite evaluation.
Evan D. Sherwin, Sahar H. El Abbadi, Philippine M. Burdeau, Zhan Zhang, Zhenlin Chen, Jeffrey S. Rutherford, Yuanlei Chen, and Adam R. Brandt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 765–782, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-765-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-765-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Countries and companies increasingly rely on a growing fleet of satellites to find large emissions of climate-warming methane, particularly from oil and natural gas systems across the globe. We independently assessed the performance of nine such systems by releasing controlled, undisclosed amounts of methane as satellites passed overhead. The tested systems produced reliable detection and quantification results, including the smallest-ever emission detected from space in such a test.
Luis F. Millán, Matthew D. Lebsock, Ken B. Cooper, Jose V. Siles, Robert Dengler, Raquel Rodriguez Monje, Amin Nehrir, Rory A. Barton-Grimley, James E. Collins, Claire E. Robinson, Kenneth L. Thornhill, and Holger Vömel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 539–559, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-539-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-539-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
In this study, we describe and validate a new technique in which three radar tones are used to estimate the water vapor inside clouds and precipitation. This instrument flew on board NASA's P-3 aircraft during the Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS) campaign and the Synergies Of Active optical and Active microwave Remote Sensing Experiment (SOA2RSE) campaign.
Ouyang Liu, Zhengqiang Li, Yangyan Lin, Cheng Fan, Ying Zhang, Kaitao Li, Peng Zhang, Yuanyuan Wei, Tianzeng Chen, Jiantao Dong, and Gerrit de Leeuw
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 377–395, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-377-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-377-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a trace gas which is important for atmospheric chemistry and may affect human health. To understand processes leading to harmful concentrations, it is important to monitor NO2 concentrations near the surface and higher up. To this end, a Pandora instrument has been installed in Beijing. An overview of the first year of data shows the large variability on diurnal to seasonal timescales and how this is affected by wind speed and direction and chemistry.
Karen E. Cady-Pereira, Xuehui Guo, Rui Wang, April B. Leytem, Chase Calkins, Elizabeth Berry, Kang Sun, Markus Müller, Armin Wisthaler, Vivienne H. Payne, Mark W. Shephard, Mark A. Zondlo, and Valentin Kantchev
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 15–36, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-15-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-15-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Ammonia is a significant precursor of PM2.5 particles and thus contributes to poor air quality in many regions. Furthermore, ammonia concentrations are rising due to the increase of large-scale, intensive agricultural activities. Here we evaluate satellite measurements of ammonia against aircraft and surface network data, and show that there are differences in magnitude, but the satellite data are spatially and temporally well correlated with the in situ data.
Alana K. Ayasse, Daniel Cusworth, Kelly O'Neill, Justin Fisk, Andrew K. Thorpe, and Riley Duren
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 6065–6074, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-6065-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-6065-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, and a significant portion of methane comes from large individual plumes. Recently, airplane-mounted infrared technologies have proven very good at detecting and quantifying these plumes. In order to extract the methane signal from the infrared image, there are two widely used approaches. In this study, we assess the performance of both approaches using controlled-release experiments. We also examine the minimum detection limit of the infrared technology.
Apisada Chulakadabba, Maryann Sargent, Thomas Lauvaux, Joshua S. Benmergui, Jonathan E. Franklin, Christopher Chan Miller, Jonas S. Wilzewski, Sébastien Roche, Eamon Conway, Amir H. Souri, Kang Sun, Bingkun Luo, Jacob Hawthrone, Jenna Samra, Bruce C. Daube, Xiong Liu, Kelly Chance, Yang Li, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Jeff S. Rutherford, Evan D. Sherwin, Adam Brandt, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5771–5785, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5771-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5771-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We show that MethaneAIR, a precursor to the MethaneSAT satellite, demonstrates accurate point source quantification during controlled release experiments and regional observations in 2021 and 2022. Results from our two independent quantification methods suggest the accuracy of our sensor and algorithms is better than 25 % for sources emitting 200 kg h−1 or more. Insights from these measurements help establish the capabilities of MethaneSAT and MethaneAIR.
Kanghyun Baek, Jae Hwan Kim, Juseon Bak, David P. Haffner, Mina Kang, and Hyunkee Hong
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5461–5478, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5461-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5461-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The GEMS mission was the first mission of the geostationary satellite constellation for hourly atmospheric composition monitoring. The GEMS ozone measurements were cross-compared to those of Pandora, OMPS, and TROPOMI satellite sensors and excellent agreement was found. GEMS has proven to be a powerful new instrument for monitoring and assessing the diurnal variation in atmospheric ozone. This experience can be used to advance research with future geostationary environmental satellite missions.
Tobias Christoph Valentin Werner Riess, Klaas Folkert Boersma, Ward Van Roy, Jos de Laat, Enrico Dammers, and Jasper van Vliet
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5287–5304, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5287-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5287-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Satellite retrievals of trace gases require prior knowledge of the vertical distribution of the pollutant, which is usually obtained from models. Using aircraft-measured vertical NO2 profiles over the North Sea in summer 2021, we evaluate the Transport Model 5 profiles used in the TROPOMI NO2 retrieval. We conclude that driven by the low horizontal resolution and the overestimated vertical mixing, resulting NO2 columns are 20 % too low. This has important implications for emission estimates.
Thomas Trickl, Martin Adelwart, Dina Khordakova, Ludwig Ries, Christian Rolf, Michael Sprenger, Wolfgang Steinbrecht, and Hannes Vogelmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5145–5165, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5145-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5145-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Tropospheric ozone have been measured for more than a century. Highly quantitative ozone measurements have been made at monitoring stations. However, deficits have been reported for vertical sounding systems. Here, we report a thorough intercomparison effort between a differential-absorption lidar system and two types of balloon-borne ozone sondes, also using ozone sensors at nearby mountain sites as references. The sondes agree very well with the lidar after offset corrections.
Rodriguez Yombo Phaka, Alexis Merlaud, Gaia Pinardi, Martina M. Friedrich, Michel Van Roozendael, Jean-François Müller, Trissevgeni Stavrakou, Isabelle De Smedt, François Hendrick, Ermioni Dimitropoulou, Richard Bopili Mbotia Lepiba, Edmond Phuku Phuati, Buenimio Lomami Djibi, Lars Jacobs, Caroline Fayt, Jean-Pierre Mbungu Tsumbu, and Emmanuel Mahieu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5029–5050, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5029-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5029-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We present air quality measurements in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, performed with a newly developed instrument which was installed on a roof of the University of Kinshasa in November 2019. The instrument records spectra of the scattered sunlight, from which we derive the abundances of nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde, two important pollutants. We compare our ground-based measurements with those of the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI).
Jay Herman, Jerald Ziemke, and Richard McPeters
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4693–4707, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4693-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4693-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Fourier series multivariate linear regression trends (% per decade) in ozone were estimated from the Merged Ozone Data Set (MOD) from 1979 to 2021 in two different regimes, from 1979 to TA (the date when ozone stopped decreasing) and TA to 2021. The derived TA is a latitude-dependent date, ranging from 1994 to 1998. TA(θ) is a marker for photochemistry dynamics models attempting to represent ozone change over the past 42 years.
Michael Kiefer, Dale F. Hurst, Gabriele P. Stiller, Stefan Lossow, Holger Vömel, John Anderson, Faiza Azam, Jean-Loup Bertaux, Laurent Blanot, Klaus Bramstedt, John P. Burrows, Robert Damadeo, Bianca Maria Dinelli, Patrick Eriksson, Maya García-Comas, John C. Gille, Mark Hervig, Yasuko Kasai, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Donal Murtagh, Gerald E. Nedoluha, Stefan Noël, Piera Raspollini, William G. Read, Karen H. Rosenlof, Alexei Rozanov, Christopher E. Sioris, Takafumi Sugita, Thomas von Clarmann, Kaley A. Walker, and Katja Weigel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4589–4642, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4589-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4589-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We quantify biases and drifts (and their uncertainties) between the stratospheric water vapor measurement records of 15 satellite-based instruments (SATs, with 31 different retrievals) and balloon-borne frost point hygrometers (FPs) launched at 27 globally distributed stations. These comparisons of measurements during the period 2000–2016 are made using robust, consistent statistical methods. With some exceptions, the biases and drifts determined for most SAT–FP pairs are < 10 % and < 1 % yr−1.
Tim A. van Kempen, Tim J. Rotmans, Richard M. van Hees, Carol Bruegge, Dejian Fu, Ruud Hoogeveen, Thomas J. Pongetti, Robert Rosenberg, and Ilse Aben
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4507–4527, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4507-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4507-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Validation of satellite measurements is essential for providing reliable and consistent products. In this paper, a validation method for TROPOMI-SWIR (Tropospheric Measurement Instrument in the short-wavelength infrared) is explored. TROPOMI-SWIR has been shown to be exceptionally stable, a necessity to explore the methodology. Railroad Valley, Nevada, is a prime location to perform the necessary measurements to validate the satellite measurements of TROPOMI-SWIR.
Serin Kim, Daewon Kim, Hyunkee Hong, Lim-Seok Chang, Hanlim Lee, Deok-Rae Kim, Donghee Kim, Jeong-Ah Yu, Dongwon Lee, Ukkyo Jeong, Chang-Kuen Song, Sang-Woo Kim, Sang Seo Park, Jhoon Kim, Thomas F. Hanisco, Junsung Park, Wonei Choi, and Kwangyul Lee
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3959–3972, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3959-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3959-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
A first evaluation of the Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) NO2 was carried out via comparison with the NO2 data obtained from the ground-based Pandora direct-sun measurements at four sites in Seosan, Republic of Korea. Comparisons between GEMS NO2 and Pandora NO2 were performed according to GEMS cloud fraction. GEMS NO2 showed good agreement with that of Pandora NO2 under less cloudy conditions.
Nicholas Balasus, Daniel J. Jacob, Alba Lorente, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Robert J. Parker, Hartmut Boesch, Zichong Chen, Makoto M. Kelp, Hannah Nesser, and Daniel J. Varon
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3787–3807, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3787-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3787-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We use machine learning to remove biases in TROPOMI satellite observations of atmospheric methane, with GOSAT observations serving as a reference. We find that the TROPOMI biases relative to GOSAT are related to the presence of aerosols and clouds, the surface brightness, and the specific detector that makes the observation aboard TROPOMI. The resulting blended TROPOMI+GOSAT product is more reliable for quantifying methane emissions.
Thomas E. Taylor, Christopher W. O'Dell, David Baker, Carol Bruegge, Albert Chang, Lars Chapsky, Abhishek Chatterjee, Cecilia Cheng, Frédéric Chevallier, David Crisp, Lan Dang, Brian Drouin, Annmarie Eldering, Liang Feng, Brendan Fisher, Dejian Fu, Michael Gunson, Vance Haemmerle, Graziela R. Keller, Matthäus Kiel, Le Kuai, Thomas Kurosu, Alyn Lambert, Joshua Laughner, Richard Lee, Junjie Liu, Lucas Mandrake, Yuliya Marchetti, Gregory McGarragh, Aronne Merrelli, Robert R. Nelson, Greg Osterman, Fabiano Oyafuso, Paul I. Palmer, Vivienne H. Payne, Robert Rosenberg, Peter Somkuti, Gary Spiers, Cathy To, Brad Weir, Paul O. Wennberg, Shanshan Yu, and Jia Zong
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3173–3209, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3173-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3173-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 and 3 (OCO-2 and OCO-3, respectively) provide complementary spatiotemporal coverage from a sun-synchronous and precession orbit, respectively. Estimates of total column carbon dioxide (XCO2) derived from the two sensors using the same retrieval algorithm show broad consistency over a 2.5-year overlapping time record. This suggests that data from the two satellites may be used together for scientific analysis.
Lena Katharina Jänicke, Rene Preusker, Marco Celesti, Marin Tudoroiu, Jürgen Fischer, Dirk Schüttemeyer, and Matthias Drusch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3101–3121, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3101-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3101-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
To compare two top-of-atmosphere radiances measured by instruments with different spectral characteristics, a transfer function has been developed. It is applied to a tandem data set of Sentinel-3A and B, for which OLCI-B mimicked the ESA’s eighth Earth Explorer FLEX. We found that OLCI-A measured radiances about 2 % brighter than OLCI-FLEX. Only at larger wavelengths were OLCI-A measurements about 5 % darker. The method is thus successful, being sensitive to calibration and processing issues.
Luis F. Millán, Gloria L. Manney, Harald Boenisch, Michaela I. Hegglin, Peter Hoor, Daniel Kunkel, Thierry Leblanc, Irina Petropavlovskikh, Kaley Walker, Krzysztof Wargan, and Andreas Zahn
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2957–2988, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2957-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2957-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The determination of atmospheric composition trends in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) is still highly uncertain. We present the creation of dynamical diagnostics to map several ozone datasets (ozonesondes, lidars, aircraft, and satellite measurements) in geophysically based coordinate systems. The diagnostics can also be used to analyze other greenhouse gases relevant to surface climate and UTLS chemistry.
Zhihua Zhang, Jianguo Niu, Lawrence E. Flynn, Eric Beach, and Trevor Beck
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2919–2941, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2919-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2919-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
This study mainly focused on addressing stability and improvement when using a broadband approach, establishing soft-calibration adjustments for both OMPS S-NPP and N20, analyzing error biases based on multi-sensor bias correction, and comparing total column ozone and aerosol index retrievals from NOAA OMPS with those from other products.
Matthew S. Johnson, Amir H. Souri, Sajeev Philip, Rajesh Kumar, Aaron Naeger, Jeffrey Geddes, Laura Judd, Scott Janz, Heesung Chong, and John Sullivan
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2431–2454, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2431-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2431-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Satellites provide vital information for studying the processes controlling ozone formation. Based on the abundance of particular gases in the atmosphere, ozone formation is sensitive to specific human-induced and natural emission sources. However, errors and biases in satellite retrievals hinder this data source’s application for studying ozone formation sensitivity. We conducted a thorough statistical evaluation of two commonly applied satellites for investigating ozone formation sensitivity.
Kezia Lange, Andreas Richter, Anja Schönhardt, Andreas C. Meier, Tim Bösch, André Seyler, Kai Krause, Lisa K. Behrens, Folkard Wittrock, Alexis Merlaud, Frederik Tack, Caroline Fayt, Martina M. Friedrich, Ermioni Dimitropoulou, Michel Van Roozendael, Vinod Kumar, Sebastian Donner, Steffen Dörner, Bianca Lauster, Maria Razi, Christian Borger, Katharina Uhlmannsiek, Thomas Wagner, Thomas Ruhtz, Henk Eskes, Birger Bohn, Daniel Santana Diaz, Nader Abuhassan, Dirk Schüttemeyer, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1357–1389, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1357-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1357-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We present airborne imaging DOAS and ground-based stationary and car DOAS measurements conducted during the S5P-VAL-DE-Ruhr campaign in the Rhine-Ruhr region. The measurements are used to validate spaceborne NO2 data products from the Sentinel-5 Precursor TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). Auxiliary data of the TROPOMI NO2 retrieval, such as spatially higher resolved a priori NO2 vertical profiles, surface reflectivity, and cloud treatment are investigated to evaluate their impact.
Yolanda Maria Lemes, Christoph Häni, Jesper Nørlem Kamp, and Anders Feilberg
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1295–1309, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1295-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1295-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The implementation of a new method, line-averaged concentration measurement with a closed-path analyzer, will enable the measurement of fluxes of multiple gases from different types of sources and will evaluate the effects of mitigation strategies on emissions. In addition, this method allows for continuous online measurements that resolve temporal variation in ammonia emissions and the peak emissions of methane.
Prajjwal Rawat, Manish Naja, Evan Fishbein, Pradeep K. Thapliyal, Rajesh Kumar, Piyush Bhardwaj, Aditya Jaiswal, Sugriva N. Tiwari, Sethuraman Venkataramani, and Shyam Lal
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 889–909, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-889-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-889-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Satellite-based ozone observations have gained importance due to their global coverage. However, satellite-retrieved products are indirect and need to be validated, particularly over mountains. Ozonesondes launched from a Himalayan site are used to assess the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) ozone retrieval. AIRS is shown to overestimate ozone in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, while the differences from ozonesondes are more minor in the middle troposphere and stratosphere.
Murali Natarajan, Robert Damadeo, and David Flittner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 75–87, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-75-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-75-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Photochemically induced changes in mesospheric O3 concentration at twilight can cause asymmetry in the distribution along the line of sight of solar occultation observations that must be considered in the retrieval algorithm. Correction factors developed from diurnal photochemical model simulations were used to modify the archived SAGE III/ISS mesospheric O3 concentrations. For June 2021 the bias caused by the neglect of diurnal variations is over 30% at 64 km altitude and low latitudes.
Cited articles
Bennartz, R. and Preusker, R.: Representation of the photon pathlength distribution in a cloudy atmosphere using finite elements, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Ra., 98, 202–219, 2006.
Bovensmann, H., Buchwitz, M., Burrows, J. P., Reuter, M., Krings, T., Gerilowski, K., Schneising, O., Heymann, J., Tretner, A., and Erzinger, J.: A remote sensing technique for global monitoring of power plant CO2 emissions from space and related applications, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 3, 781–811, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-3-781-2010, 2010.
Buchwitz, M., Schneising, O., Burrows, J. P., Bovensmann, H., Reuter, M., and Notholt, J.: First direct observation of the atmospheric CO2 year-to-year increase from space, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 7, 4249–4256, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-7-4249-2007, 2007.
Crisp, D. and Johnson, C.: The Orbiting Carbon Observatory mission, Acta Astronaut., 56, 193–197, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2004.09.032, 2005.
Crisp, D., Atlas, R., Breon, F.-M., Brown, L., Burrows, J., Ciais, P., Connor, B., Doney, S., Fung, I., Jacob, D., Miller, C., O'Brien, D., Pawson, S., Randerson, J., Rayner, P., Salawitch, R., Sander, S., Sen, B., Stephens, G., Tans, P., Toon, G., Wennberg, P., Wofsy, S., Yung, Y., Kuang, Z., Chudasama, B., Sprague, G., Weiss, B., Pollock, R., Kenyon, D., and Schroll, S.: The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) mission, Adv. Space Res., 34, 700–709, 2004.
Crisp, D., Bösch, H., Brown, L., Castano, R., Christi, M., Connor, B., Frankenberg, C., McDuffie, J., Miller, C. E., Natraj, V., O'Dell, C., O'Brien, D., Polonsky, I., Oyafuso, F., Thompson, D., Toon, G., and Spurr, R.: OCO (Orbiting Carbon Observatory)-2 Level 2 Full Physics Retrieval Algorithm Theoretical Basis, 2010.
Crisp, D., Fisher, B. M., O'Dell, C., Frankenberg, C., Basilio, R., Bösch, H., Brown, L. R., Castano, R., Connor, B., Deutscher, N. M., Eldering, A., Griffith, D., Gunson, M., Kuze, A., Mandrake, L., McDuffie, J., Messerschmidt, J., Miller, C. E., Morino, I., Natraj, V., Notholt, J., O'Brien, D. M., Oyafuso, F., Polonsky, I., Robinson, J., Salawitch, R., Sherlock, V., Smyth, M., Suto, H., Taylor, T. E., Thompson, D. R., Wennberg, P. O., Wunch, D., and Yung, Y. L.: The ACOS CO2 retrieval algorithm – Part II: Global XCO2 data characterization, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 5, 687–707, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-5-687-2012, 2012.
Dubovik, O., Holben, B., Eck, T. F., Smirnov, A., Kaufman, Y. J., King, M. D., Tanré, D., and Slutsker, I.: Variability of absorption and optical properties of key aerosol types observed in worldwide locations, J. Atmos. Sci., 59, 590–608, 2002.
Evans, K. F.: The spherical harmonics discrete ordinate method for three-dimensional atmospheric radiative transfer, J. Atmos. Sci., 55, 429–446, 1998.
Evans, K. F.: Polarized SHDOM, American Meteorological Society, 14th Conference on Atmospheric Radiation, Boston, MA, July 2014, available at: https://ams.confex.com/ams/14CLOUD14ATRAD/webprogram/Paper249476.html (last access: 20 November 2014), 2014.
Hansen, J. E. and Travis, L. D.: Light scattering in planetary atmospheres, Space Sci. Rev., 16, 527–610, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00168069, 1974.
Kahn, R., Banerjee, P., and McDonald, D.: Sensitivity of multiangle imaging to natural mixtures of aerosols over ocean, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 106, 18219–18238, 2001.
Mandrake, L., Frankenberg, C., O'Dell, C. W., Osterman, G., Wennberg, P., and Wunch, D.: Semi-autonomous sounding selection for OCO-2, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 2851–2864, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-2851-2013, 2013.
Miller, C. E., Crisp, D., DeCola, P. L., Olsen, S. C., Randerson, J. T., Michalak, A. M., Alkhaled, A., Rayner, P., Jacob, D. J., Suntharalingam, P., Jones, D. B. A., Denning, A. S., Nicholls, M. E., Doney, S. C., Pawson, S., Boesch, H., Connor, B. J., Fung, I. Y., O'Brien, D., Salawitch, R. J., Sander, S. P., Sen, B., Tans, P., Toon, G. C., Wennberg, P. O., Wofsy, S. C., Yung, Y. L., and Law, R. M.: Precision requirements for space-based XCO2 data, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 112, D10314, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JD007659, 2007.
Miller, S. D. and Stephens, G. L.: CloudSat instrument requirements as determined from ECMWF forecasts of global cloudiness, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 106, 17713–17733, 2001.
O'Brien, D. M., Polonsky, I., O'Dell, C., and Carheden, A.: Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), algorithm theoretical basis document: the OCO simulator, Technical report ISSN 0737-5352-85, Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, Colorado State University, 2009.
O'Dell, C., Day, J., Pollock, R., Bruegge, C., O'Brien, D., Castano, R., Tkatcheva, I., Miller, C., and Crisp, D.: Preflight radiometric calibration of the orbiting carbon observatory, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 49, 2438–2447, 2011.
O'Dell, C. W., Connor, B., Bösch, H., O'Brien, D., Frankenberg, C., Castano, R., Christi, M., Eldering, D., Fisher, B., Gunson, M., McDuffie, J., Miller, C. E., Natraj, V., Oyafuso, F., Polonsky, I., Smyth, M., Taylor, T., Toon, G. C., Wennberg, P. O., and Wunch, D.: The ACOS CO2 retrieval algorithm – Part 1: Description and validation against synthetic observations, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 5, 99–121, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-5-99-2012, 2012.
Taylor, T., O'Dell, C., O'Brien, D., Kikuchi, N., Yokota, T., Nakajima, T., Ishida, H., Crisp, D., and Nakajima, T.: Comparison of cloud-screening methods applied to GOSAT near-infrared spectra, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 50, 295–309, 2012.
Thompson, D. R., Chris Benner, D., Brown, L. R., Crisp, D., Malathy Devi, V., Jiang, Y., Natraj, V., Oyafuso, F., Sung, K., Wunch, D., Castaño, R., and Miller, C. E.: Atmospheric validation of high accuracy CO2 absorption coefficients for the OCO-2 mission, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Ra., 113, 2265–2276, 2012.
Tran, H. and Hartmann, J.-M.: An improved O2 A band absorption model and its consequences for retrievals of photon paths and surface pressures, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 113, D18104, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JD010011, 2008.
Várnai, T., Marshak, A., and Yang, W.: Multi-satellite aerosol observations in the vicinity of clouds, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 3899–3908, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3899-2013, 2013.
Wunch, D., Toon, G. C., Blavier, J.-F. L., Washenfelder, R. A., Notholt, J., Connor, B. J., Griffith, D. W. T., Sherlock, V., and Wennberg, P. O.: The total carbon column observing network, Philos. T. R. Soc. A, 369, 2087–2112, 2011a.
Wunch, D., Wennberg, P. O., Toon, G. C., Connor, B. J., Fisher, B., Osterman, G. B., Frankenberg, C., Mandrake, L., O'Dell, C., Ahonen, P., Biraud, S. C., Castano, R., Cressie, N., Crisp, D., Deutscher, N. M., Eldering, A., Fisher, M. L., Griffith, D. W. T., Gunson, M., Heikkinen, P., Keppel-Aleks, G., Kyrö, E., Lindenmaier, R., Macatangay, R., Mendonca, J., Messerschmidt, J., Miller, C. E., Morino, I., Notholt, J., Oyafuso, F. A., Rettinger, M., Robinson, J., Roehl, C. M., Salawitch, R. J., Sherlock, V., Strong, K., Sussmann, R., Tanaka, T., Thompson, D. R., Uchino, O., Warneke, T., and Wofsy, S. C.: A method for evaluating bias in global measurements of CO2 total columns from space, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 12317–12337, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-12317-2011, 2011b.
Yoshida, Y., Ota, Y., Eguchi, N., Kikuchi, N., Nobuta, K., Tran, H., Morino, I., and Yokota, T.: Retrieval algorithm for CO2 and CH4 column abundances from short-wavelength infrared spectral observations by the Greenhouse gases observing satellite, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 4, 717–734, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-4-717-2011, 2011.
Zhang, Z., Ackerman, A. S., Feingold, G., Platnick, S., Pincus, R., and Xue, H.: Effects of cloud horizontal inhomogeneity and drizzle on remote sensing of cloud droplet effective radius: case studies based on large-eddy simulations, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 117, D19208, https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JD017655, 2012.
