Global Observation of Greenhouse Gases by GOSAT Series UCHINO, Osamu; OHYAMA, Hirofumi; MORINO, Isamu ...
Journal of The Society of Instrument and Control Engineers,
2022/05/10, Letnik:
61, Številka:
5
Journal Article
A 1.6 μm differential absorption Lidar (DIAL) system for measurement of vertical CO₂ mixing ratio profiles has been developed. A comparison of CO₂ vertical profiles measured by the DIAL system and an ...aircraft in situ sensor in January 2014 over the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) in Tsukuba, Japan, is presented. The DIAL measurement was obtained at an altitude range of between 1.56 and 3.60 km with a vertical resolution of 236 m (below 3 km) and 590 m (above 3 km) at an average error of 1.93 ppm. An in situ sensor for cavity ring-down spectroscopy of CO₂ was installed in an aircraft. CO₂ mixing ratio measured by DIAL and the aircraft sensor ranged from 398.73 to 401.36 ppm and from 399.08 to 401.83 ppm, respectively, with an average difference of -0.94 ± 1.91 ppm below 3 km and -0.70 ± 1.98 ppm above 3 km between the two measurements.
Abstract
The eruption of the submarine Hunga volcano in January 2022 was associated with a powerful blast that injected volcanic material to altitudes up to 58 km. From a combination of various types ...of satellite and ground-based observations supported by transport modeling, we show evidence for an unprecedented increase in the global stratospheric water mass by 13% relative to climatological levels, and a 5-fold increase of stratospheric aerosol load, the highest in the last three decades. Owing to the extreme injection altitude, the volcanic plume circumnavigated the Earth in only 1 week and dispersed nearly pole-to-pole in three months. The unique nature and magnitude of the global stratospheric perturbation by the Hunga eruption ranks it among the most remarkable climatic events in the modern observation era, with a range of potential long-lasting repercussions for stratospheric composition and climate.
Spatial and temporal variability of atmospheric water vapor (H2O) is extremely high, and therefore it is difficult to accurately evaluate the measurement precision of H2O data by a simple comparison ...between the data derived from two different instruments. We determined the measurement precisions of column-averaged dry-air mole fractions of H2O (XH2O) retrieved independently from spectral radiances in the thermal infrared (TIR) and the short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) regions measured using a Thermal And Near-infrared Sensor for carbon Observation-Fourier Transform Spectrometer (TANSO-FTS) onboard the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT), by an intercomparison between the two TANSO-FTS XH2O data products and the ground-based FTS XH2O data. Furthermore, the spatial variability of XH2O was also estimated in the intercomparison process. Mutually coincident XH2O data above land for the period ranging from April 2009 to May 2014 were intercompared with different spatial coincidence criteria. We found that the precisions of the TANSO-FTS TIR and TANSO-FTS SWIR XH2O were 7.3%-7.7% and 3.5%-4.5%, respectively, and that the spatial variability of XH2O was 6.7% within a radius of 50 km and 18.5% within a radius of 200 km. These results demonstrate that, in order to accurately evaluate the measurement precision of XH2O, it is necessary to set more rigorous spatial coincidence criteria or to take into account the spatial variability of XH2O as derived in the present study.
The Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite 2 (GOSAT-2) was launched in October 2018 as a successor to GOSAT (launched in 2009), the first satellite to specialize in greenhouse gas observations. ...Compared to the GOSAT sensors, the sensors of GOSAT-2 offer higher performance in most respects. The quality and quantity of data from observations are expected to be improved accordingly. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is better in both the SWIR and TIR bands of TANSO-FTS-2, which is the main sensor of GOSAT-2. This improvement ultimately enhances the accuracy of greenhouse gas concentration analysis. Furthermore, because of the improved SNR in the SWIR band, the northern limit at which data are obtainable in high-latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere in winter, where observation data have remained unavailable because of weak signal strength, has moved to higher latitudes. As better data are obtained in greater quantities, progress in carbon cycle research for high-latitude regions is anticipated. Moreover, the improvement of SNR in the TIR band is expected to be considerable. Particularly, the resolutions of the vertical concentration distributions of CO
2
and CH
4
have been improved drastically. The first function introduced for GOSAT-2 that is not in GOSAT is an intelligent pointing mechanism: a cloud area avoidance function using the in-field camera of TANSO-FTS-2. This function can increase the amounts of observation data globally and can improve the accuracy of CO
2
emissions estimation and measurements of uptake intensity. The effects are expected to be strong, especially for the tropics because cumulus clouds are the most common cloud type. The intelligent pointing system can avoid the clouds effectively. Another important benefit of TANSO-FTS-2 is that the wavelength range of Band 3 of SWIR has been expanded for measuring carbon monoxide (CO). Because CO originates from combustion, it is used to evaluate some effects of human activities in urban areas and biomass burning in fields. Particularly, black carbon-type aerosols can be measured by the sub-sensor, TANSO-CAI-2, to assess biomass burning along with CO
2
and CO by TANSO-FTS-2.
The Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) is a global network dedicated to the precise and accurate measurements of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. The TCCON station in Burgos, ...Ilocos Norte, Philippines was established with the primary purpose of validating the upcoming Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite-2 (GOSAT-2) mission and in general, to respond to the need for reliable ground-based validation data for satellite GHG observations in the region. Here, we present the first 4 months of data from the new TCCON site in Burgos, initial comparisons with satellite measurements of C O 2 and model simulations of C O . A nearest sounding from Japan’s GOSAT as well as target mode observations from NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) showed very good consistency in the retrieved column-averaged dry air mole fractions of C O 2 , yielding TCCON - satellite differences of 0.86 ± 1.06 ppm for GOSAT and 0.83 ± 1.22 ppm for OCO-2. We also show measurements of enhanced C O , probably from East Asia. GEOS-Chem model simulations were used to study the observed C O variability. However, despite the model capturing the pattern of the C O variability, there is an obvious underestimation in the C O magnitude in the model. We conclude that more measurements and modeling are necessary to adequately sample the variability over different seasons and to determine the suitability of current inventories.
To validate products of the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT), we observed vertical profiles of aerosols, thin cirrus clouds, and tropospheric ozone with a mobile-lidar system that ...consisted of a two-wavelength (532 and 1064 nm) polarization lidar and a tropospheric ozone differential absorption lidar (DIAL). We used these lidars to make continuous measurements over Saga (33.24° N, 130.29° E) during 20–31 March 2015. High ozone and high aerosol concentrations were observed almost simultaneously in the altitude range 0.5–1.5 km from 03:00 to 20:00 Japan Standard Time (JST) on 22 March 2015. The maximum ozone volume mixing ratio was ∼ 110 ppbv. The maxima of the aerosol extinction coefficient and optical depth at 532 nm were 1.2 km−1 and 2.1, respectively. Backward trajectory analysis and the simulations by the Model of Aerosol Species IN the Global AtmospheRe (MASINGAR) mk-2 and the Meteorological Research Institute Chemistry-Climate Model, version 2 (MRI-CCM2), indicated that mineral dust particles from the Gobi Desert and an air mass with high ozone and aerosol (mainly sulfate) concentrations that originated from the North China Plain could have been transported over the measurement site within about 2 days. These high ozone and aerosol concentrations impacted surface air quality substantially in the afternoon of 22 March 2015. After some modifications of its physical and chemical parameters, MRI-CCM2 approximately reproduced the high ozone volume mixing ratio. MASINGAR mk-2 successfully predicted high aerosol concentrations, but the predicted peak aerosol optical thickness was about one-third of the observed value.
A novel, practical observation system for measuring tropospheric carbon
dioxide (CO2) concentrations using a non-dispersive infrared analyzer
carried by a small helium-filled balloon (CO2 sonde) has ...been
developed for the first time. Vertical profiles of atmospheric CO2 can
be measured with a 240–400 m altitude resolution through regular onboard
calibrations using two different CO2 standard gases. The standard
deviations (1σ) of the measured mole fractions in the laboratory
experiments using a vacuum chamber at a temperature of 298 K were
approximately 0.6 ppm at 1010 hPa and 1.2 ppm at 250 hPa. Two CO2
vertical profile data obtained using the CO2 sondes, which were
launched on 31 January and 3 February 2011 at Moriya, were compared
with the chartered aircraft data on the same days and the commercial
aircraft data obtained by the Comprehensive Observation Network for TRace
gases by Airliner (COTRAIL) program on the same day (31 January) and 1 d before (2 February). The difference between the CO2 sonde data
and these four sets of in situ aircraft data (over the range of each balloon
altitude ±100 m) up to the altitude of 7 km was 0.6±1.2 ppm
(average ±1σ). In field experiments, the CO2 sonde
detected an increase in CO2 concentration in an urban area and a
decrease in a forested area near the surface. The CO2 sonde was shown
to be a useful instrument for observing and monitoring the vertical profiles
of CO2 concentration in the troposphere.
Extremely high levels of column-averaged dry-air mole fractions of atmospheric methane (XCH4) were detected in August and September 2013 over northeast Asia (∼ 20 ppb above the averaged summertime ...XCH4 over 2009–2012, after removing a long-term trend), as being retrieved from the Short-Wavelength InfraRed (SWIR) spectral data observed with the Thermal And Near-infrared Sensor for carbon Observation – Fourier Transform Spectrometer (TANSO-FTS) onboard Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT). Similar enhancements of XCH4 were also observed by the ground-based measurements at two Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) sites in Japan. The analysis of surface CH4 concentrations observed at three monitoring sites around the Japan archipelago suggest that the extreme increase of XCH4 has occurred in a limited area. The model analysis was conducted to investigate this anomalously high XCH4 event, using an atmospheric transport model. The results indicate that the extreme increase of XCH4 is attributed to the anomalous atmospheric pressure pattern over East Asia during the summer of 2013, which effectively transported the CH4-rich air to Japan from the strong CH4 source areas in east China. The two Japanese TCCON sites, ∼ 1000 km east–west apart each other, coincidentally located along the substantially CH4-rich air flow from east China. This analysis demonstrates the capability of GOSAT to monitor an XCH4 event on a synoptic scale. We anticipate that the synoptic information of XCH4 from GOSAT data contributes to improve our understanding of regional carbon cycle and the regional flux estimation.
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