Abstract
Abstract. The practical usefulness of a desktop optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) for measuring atmospheric CO2 and CH4 column densities at surface sites was examined in two separate measurement campaigns. The first comparison involved operating the OSA in parallel with a high resolution Fourier transform spectroscopy (FTS) situated at the University of Wollongong in Australia. Scale factors for the OSA were assigned for the column average volume mixing ratios of xCO2 and xCH4 by comparing with the well-studied FTS. The second method is a calibration against aircraft CO2 profiles in situ over Tsukuba in Japan obtained during a GOSAT validation campaign carried out from 28 January to 7 February 2011. The xCO2 values in the campaign, deduced by use of a derived OSA scale factor, were in excellent agreement with the integrated aircraft profiles.
Highlights
Carbon dioxide and methane have the highest and the second highest contributions of ∼ 64 and ∼ 18 %, respectively, to overall global radiative forcing from major anthropogenic greenhouse gases (WMO, 2011)
The Greenhouse gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT: IBUKI) of Japan was launched on 23 January 2009, and data acquisition for the CO2 and CH4 column densities has progressed by using an onboard Fourier transform spectrometer, Fourier transform spectroscopy (FTS) (Kuze et al, 2009), with good precision from space
Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) is composed of 21 sites at this moment in time, and 15 FTS instruments are operational in Canada, USA, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and some European countries
Summary
Carbon dioxide and methane have the highest and the second highest contributions of ∼ 64 and ∼ 18 %, respectively, to overall global radiative forcing from major anthropogenic greenhouse gases (WMO, 2011). The second method uses aircraft CO2 profiles obtained in a GOSAT validation carried out at Tsukuba in Japan, a TCCON site, on 28 January– 7 February 2011, which provided the opportunity to compare the scale factor against the aircraft profiles measured in situ. In this campaign the xCO2 and xCH4 from the OSA were compared with those obtained with the FTS operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) measured under the same conditions
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