Abstract
Abstract. Improved versions of CH4 and N2O profiles derived at the Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research and Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC) from spectra measured by the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) have become available. For the MIPAS full-resolution period (2002–2004) these are V5H_CH4_21 and V5H_N2O_21 and for the reduced-resolution period (2005–2012) these are V5R_CH4_224, V5R_CH4_225, V5R_N2O_224 and V5R_N2O_225. Here, we compare CH4 profiles to those measured by the Fourier Transform Spectrometer on board of the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE-FTS), the HALogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) and the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY), to the Global Cooperative Air Sampling Network (GCASN) surface data. We find the MIPAS CH4 profiles below 25 km to be typically higher of the order of 0.1 ppmv for both measurement periods. N2O profiles are compared to those measured by ACE-FTS, the Microwave Limb Sounder on board of the Aura satellite (Aura-MLS) and the Sub-millimetre Radiometer on board of the Odin satellite (Odin-SMR) as well as to the Halocarbons and other Atmospheric Trace Species Group (HATS) surface data. The mixing ratios of the satellite instruments agree well with each other for the full-resolution period. For the reduced-resolution period, MIPAS produces similar values as Odin-SMR, but higher values than ACE-FTS and HATS. Below 27 km, the MIPAS profiles show higher mixing ratios than Aura-MLS, and lower values between 27 and 41 km. Cross-comparisons between the two MIPAS measurement periods show that they generally agree quite well, but, especially for CH4, the reduced-resolution period seems to produce slightly higher mixing ratios than the full-resolution data.
Highlights
The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS; Fischer et al, 2008) measured limb emission spectra between 685 and 2410 cm−1
The profiles used for the comparison to MIPAS data from the reduced-resolution period were measured from January to August 2005 and are distributed over all latitude bands
From comparisons of MIPAS global mean data to Global Cooperative Air Sampling Network (GCASN) surface measurements (Fig. 12), we find that MIPAS measures mixing ratios that are on average 0.07 ppmv higher than the surface data
Summary
The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS; Fischer et al, 2008) measured limb emission spectra between 685 and 2410 cm−1. Only profile points have been used, where the diagonal element of the averaging kernel is above 0.03 and the visibility flag is 1 The latter is a value which indicates for one profile point, whether the retrieval used measured data which was emitted at the altitude of this profile point. A comparison of MIPAS IMK/IAA CH4 to profiles measured by other instruments can be found in Laeng et al (2015) They discuss data versions CH4_V5R_222 and CH4_V5R_223 which cover the MIPAS reduced-resolution period only. 5 an attempt is made to gain some knowledge about how well the data products from the two different MIPAS measurement periods agree by using comparisons to other instruments. Since the bulk of the MIPAS data is from the reduced-resolution period, we discuss these profiles before those measured during the full-resolution period
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