Abstract
Abstract. The Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) produces precise measurements of the column average dry-air mole fractions of CO2, CO, CH4, N2O and H2O at a variety of sites worldwide. These observations rely on spectroscopic parameters that are not known with sufficient accuracy to compute total columns that can be used in combination with in situ measurements. The TCCON must therefore be calibrated to World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in situ trace gas measurement scales. We present a calibration of TCCON data using WMO-scale instrumentation aboard aircraft that measured profiles over four TCCON stations during 2008 and 2009. These calibrations are compared with similar observations made in 2004 and 2006. The results indicate that a single, global calibration factor for each gas accurately captures the TCCON total column data within error.
Highlights
The Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) is a ground-based network of Fourier transform spectrometers that precisely measure total columns of CO2, CO, CH4, N2O, H2O, HF and other gases (Wunch et al, 2010)
We describe the first global calibration of five TCCON sites (Park Falls, Lamont, Darwin, Lauder and Tsukuba), using instrumentation calibrated to World Meteorological Organization (WMO) scales aboard the High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research (HIAPER) aircraft, during the START-08 and HIPPO overpasses in 2008 and 2009, Learjet overflights of Lamont in 2009, and a Beechcraft King Air 200T aircraft profile over Tsukuba, Japan in 2009 (Tanaka et al, 2009)
The CO2, CH4, N2O and CO measurements were made by flask samplers, which were analysed at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth System Research Laboratory (NOAA’s ESRL)
Summary
The Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) is a ground-based network of Fourier transform spectrometers that precisely measure total columns of CO2, CO, CH4, N2O, H2O, HF and other gases (Wunch et al, 2010). In order to make TCCON column measurements useful for these combined analyses, they must be calibrated to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in situ trace gas measurement scales. We describe the first global calibration of five TCCON sites (Park Falls, Lamont, Darwin, Lauder and Tsukuba), using instrumentation calibrated to WMO scales aboard the HIAPER aircraft, during the START-08 and HIPPO overpasses in 2008 and 2009, Learjet overflights of Lamont in 2009, and a Beechcraft King Air 200T aircraft profile over Tsukuba, Japan in 2009 (Tanaka et al, 2009). Total column abundances are retrieved from spectra measured with the TCCON instruments using a nonlinear leastsquares spectral fitting algorithm (GFIT), which scales an a priori profile to produce a synthetic spectrum that achieves the best fit to the measured spectrum.
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