Toward accurate CO2 and CH4 observations from GOSAT

Authors

A Butz, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
S Guerlet, Netherlands Institute for Space Research
O Hasekamp, Netherlands Institute for Space Research
D Schepers, Netherlands Institute for Space Research
A Galli, Netherlands Institute for Space Research
Ilse Aben, Netherlands Institute for Space Research
C Frankenberg, California Institute of Technology
J-M Hartmann, Université Paris-Est Créteil
H Tran, Université Paris-Est Créteil
A Kuze, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Gretchen Keppel-Aleks, California Institute of Technology
G C. Toon, California Institute of Technology, USA
Debra Wunch, California Institute of Technology
P Wennberg, California Institute of Technology
Nicholas M. Deutscher, University of WollongongFollow
David W. Griffith, University of WollongongFollow
Ronald Macatangay, University of WollongongFollow
Janina Messerschmidt, University of Bremen
Justus Notholt, University of Bremen, Germany
Thorsten Warneke, University of Bremen

RIS ID

41950

Publication Details

Butz, A., Guerlet, S., Hasekamp, O., Schepers, D., Galli, A., Aben, I., Frankenberg, C., Hartmann, J., Tran, H., Kuze, A., Keppel-Aleks, G., Toon, G., Wunch, D., Wennberg, P., Deutscher, N., Griffith, D., Macatangay, R., Messerschmidt, J., Notholt, J. and Warneke, T. (2011). Toward accurate CO2 and CH4 observations from GOSAT. Geophysical Research Letters, 38 (14), 1-6. Copyright 2011 the American Geophysical Union.

Abstract

The column-average dry air mole fractions of atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane (XCO2 and XCH4) are inferred from observations of backscattered sunlight conducted by the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT). Comparing the first year of GOSAT retrievals over land with colocated ground-based observations of the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON), we find an average difference (bias) of-0.05% and-0.30% for XCO2 and XCH4 with a station-to-station variability (standard deviation of the bias) of 0.37% and 0.26% among the 6 considered TCCON sites. The root-mean square deviation of the bias-corrected satellite retrievals from colocated TCCON observations amounts to 2.8 ppm for XCO2 and 0.015 ppm for X CH4. Without any data averaging, the GOSAT records reproduce general source/sink patterns such as the seasonal cycle of XCO2 suggesting the use of the satellite retrievals for constraining surface fluxes. Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.