Short description: Used to help answer questions about Earth's carbon cycle
Artist's conception of OCO-2, the second successful high precision (better than 0.3%) CO 2 observing satellite.
Space-based measurements of carbon dioxide (CO 2) are used to help answer questions about Earth's carbon cycle. There are a variety of active and planned instruments for measuring carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere from space. The first satellite mission designed to measure CO 2 was the Interferometric Monitor for Greenhouse Gases (IMG) on board the ADEOS I satellite in 1996. This mission lasted less than a year. Since then, additional space-based measurements have begun, including those from two high-precision (better than 0.3% or 1 ppm) satellites (GOSAT and OCO-2). Different instrument designs may reflect different primary missions.
There are outstanding questions in carbon cycle science that satellite observations can help answer. The Earth system absorbs about half of all anthropogenic CO 2 emissions.[1] However, it is unclear exactly how this uptake is partitioned to different regions across the globe. It is also uncertain how different regions will behave in terms of CO 2 flux under a different climate. For example, a forest may increase CO 2 uptake due to the fertilization or β-effect,[2] or it could release CO 2 due to increased metabolism by microbes at higher temperatures.[3] These questions are difficult to answer with historically spatially and temporally limited data sets.
Even though satellite observations of CO 2 are somewhat recent, they have been used for a number of different purposes, some of which are highlighted here:
Megacity CO 2 enhancements were observed with the GOSAT satellite and minimum observable space-based changes in emissions were estimated.[4]
Satellite observations have been used for visualizing how CO 2 is distributed globally,[5] including studies that have focused on anthropogenic emissions.[6]
Flux estimates were made of CO 2 into and out of different regions.[7][8]
Correlations were observed between anomalous temperatures and CO 2 measurements in boreal regions.[9]
Zonal asymmetric patterns of CO 2 were used to observe fossil fuel signatures.[10]
Emission ratios with methane were measured from forest fires.[11]
CO 2 emission ratios with carbon monoxide (a marker of incomplete combustion) measured by the MOPITT instrument were analyzed over major urban regions across the globe to measure developing/developed status.[12]
OCO-2 observations were used to estimate CO 2 emissions from wildfires in Indonesia in 2015.[13]
OCO-2 observations were also used to estimate the excess land-ocean flux due to the 2014–16 El Niño event.[14][15]
GOSAT observations were used to attribute 2010-2011 El Niño Modoki on the Brazilian carbon balance.[16]
OCO-2 observations were used to quantify CO 2 emissions from individual power plants, demonstrating the potential for future space-based CO 2 emission monitoring.[17]
Challenges
Water vapor can dilute other gases in air and thus change the amount of CO 2 in a column above the surface of the Earth, so often column-average dry-air mole fractions (XCO 2) are reported instead. To calculate this, instruments may also measure O2, which is diluted similarly to other gases, or the algorithms may account for water and surface pressure from other measurements.[18] Clouds may interfere with accurate measurements so platforms may include instruments to measure clouds. Because of measurement imperfections and errors in fitting signals to obtain XCO 2, space-based observations may also be compared with ground-based observations such as those from the TCCON.[19]
In addition to the total column measurements of CO 2 down to the ground, there have been several limb sounders that have measured CO 2 through the edge of Earth's upper atmosphere, and thermal instruments that measure the upper atmosphere during the day and night.
Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) onboard TIMED launched 7 December 2001 makes measurements in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere in thermal bands.[57]
ACE-FTS (Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment-Fourier Transform Spectrometer) onboard SCISAT-1 launched 13 August 2003 measures solar spectra, from which profiles of CO 2 can be calculated.[58]
SOFIE (Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment) is a limb sounder on board the AIM satellite launched 25 April 2007.[59]
Conceptual Missions
There have been other conceptual missions which have undergone initial evaluations but have not been chosen to become a part of space-based observing systems. These include:
Active Sensing of CO 2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) is a lidar-based mission[60]
Atmospheric Imaging Mission for Northern regions (AIM-North) would involve a constellation of two satellites in elliptical orbits to focus on northern regions.[62][63] The concept is undergoing a Phase 0 study in 2019–2020.
Carbon Monitoring Satellite (CarbonSat) was a concept for an imaging satellite with global coverage approximately every 6 days. This mission never proceeded beyond the concept phase.[64]
↑Hammerling, Dorit M.; Michalak, Anna M.; O'Dell, Christopher et al. (April 2012). "Global CO 2 distributions over land from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT)". Geophysical Research Letters39 (8): L08804. doi:10.1029/2012GL051203. Bibcode: 2012GeoRL..39.8804H.
↑Hakkarainen, J.; Ialongo, I.; Tamminen, J. (November 2016). "Direct space-based observations of anthropogenic CO 2 emission areas from OCO-2". Geophysical Research Letters43 (21): 11,400–11,406. doi:10.1002/2016GL070885. Bibcode: 2016GeoRL..4311400H.
↑Basu, S.; Guerlet, S.; Butz, A. et al. (September 2013). "Global CO 2 fluxes estimated from GOSAT retrievals of total column CO 2". Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics13 (17): 8695–8717. doi:10.5194/acp-13-8695-2013. Bibcode: 2013ACP....13.8695B.
↑Deng, F.; Jones, D. B. A.; Henze, D. K. et al. (April 2014). "Inferring regional sources and sinks of atmospheric CO 2 from GOSAT XCO2 data". Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics14 (7): 3703–3727. doi:10.5194/acp-14-3703-2014. Bibcode: 2014ACP....14.3703D.
↑Wunch, D.; Wennberg, P. O.; Messerschmidt, J. et al. (September 2013). "The covariation of Northern Hemisphere summertime CO 2 with surface temperature in boreal regions". Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics13 (18): 9447–9459. doi:10.5194/acp-13-9447-2013. Bibcode: 2013ACP....13.9447W.
↑Keppel-Aleks, G.; Wennberg, P. O.; O'Dell, C. W. et al. (April 2013). "Towards constraints on fossil fuel emissions from total column carbon dioxide". Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics13 (8): 4349–4357. doi:10.5194/acp-13-4349-2013. Bibcode: 2013ACP....13.4349K.
↑Silva, Sam J.; Arellano, Avelino F.; Worden, Helen M. (September 2013). "Toward anthropogenic combustion emission constraints from space-based analysis of urban CO 2/CO sensitivity". Geophysical Research Letters40 (18): 4971–4976. doi:10.1002/grl.50954. Bibcode: 2013GeoRL..40.4971S.
↑Heymann, J. et al. (February 2017). "CO 2 emission of Indonesian fires in 2015 estimated from satellite-derived atmospheric CO 2 concentrations". Geophysical Research Letters44 (3): 1537. doi:10.1002/2016GL072042. Bibcode: 2017GeoRL..44.1537H.
↑Liu, Junjie et al. (October 2017). "Contrasting carbon cycle responses of the tropical continents to the 2015–2016 El Niño". Science358 (6360): eaam5690. doi:10.1126/science.aam5690. PMID29026011.
↑Bowman, K. W. et al. (October 2017). "Global and Brazilian Carbon Response to El Niño Modoki 2011-2010". Earth and Space Science4 (10): 637–660. doi:10.1002/2016ea000204. Bibcode: 2017E&SS....4..637B.
↑Wunch, D.; Toon, G. C.; Blavier, J.-F. L. et al. (May 2011). "The Total Carbon Column Observing Network". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences369 (1943): 2087–2112. doi:10.1098/rsta.2010.0240. PMID21502178. Bibcode: 2011RSPTA.369.2087W.
↑Chédin, A.; Serrar, S.; Scott, N. A. et al. (September 2003). "First global measurement of midtropospheric CO 2 from NOAA polar satellites: Tropical zone". Journal of Geophysical Research108 (D18): 4581. doi:10.1029/2003JD003439. Bibcode: 2003JGRD..108.4581C.
↑Kobayashi, Hirokazu; Shimota, Akiro; Kondo, Kayoko et al. (November 1999). "Development and Evaluation of the Interferometric Monitor for Greenhouse Gases: a High-throughput Fourier-transform Infrared Radiometer for Nadir Earth Observation". Applied Optics38 (33): 6801–6807. doi:10.1364/AO.38.006801. PMID18324219. Bibcode: 1999ApOpt..38.6801K.
↑Buchwitz, M.; de Beek, R.; Burrows, J. P. et al. (March 2005). "Atmospheric methane and carbon dioxide from SCIAMACHY satellite data: initial comparison with chemistry and transport models". Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics5 (4): 941–962. doi:10.5194/acp-5-941-2005. Bibcode: 2005ACP.....5..941B.
↑Olsen, Edward T.; Chahine, Moustafa T.; Chen, Luke L. et al. (April 2008). Shen, Sylvia S; Lewis, Paul E. eds. "Retrieval of mid-tropospheric CO2 directly from AIRS measurements". Proceedings of the SPIE. Algorithms and Technologies for Multispectral, Hyperspectral, and Ultraspectral Imagery XIV 6966: 696613. doi:10.1117/12.777920. Bibcode: 2008SPIE.6966E..13O.
↑Liuzzia, G.; Masielloa, G.; Serioa, C. et al. (October 2016). "Physical inversion of the full IASI spectra: Assessment of atmospheric parameters retrievals, consistency of spectroscopy and forward modelling". Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer182: 128–157. doi:10.1016/j.jqsrt.2016.05.022. Bibcode: 2016JQSRT.182..128L.
↑Kuze, Akihiko; Suto, Hiroshi; Nakajima, Masakatsu et al. (December 2009). "Thermal and near infrared sensor for carbon observation Fourier-transform spectrometer on the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite for greenhouse gases monitoring". Applied Optics48 (35): 6716. doi:10.1364/AO.48.006716. PMID20011012. Bibcode: 2009ApOpt..48.6716K.
↑Kuze, Akihiko; Suto, Hiroshi; Shiomi, Kei et al. (June 2016). "Update on GOSAT TANSO-FTS performance, operations, and data products after more than 6 years in space". Atmospheric Measurement Techniques9 (6): 2445–2461. doi:10.5194/amt-9-2445-2016. Bibcode: 2016AMT.....9.2445K.
↑Eldering, Annmarie; O'Dell, Chris W.; Wennberg, Paul O. et al. (February 2017). "The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2: First 18 months of science data products". Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions10 (2): 549–563. doi:10.5194/amt-10-549-2017. Bibcode: 2017AMT....10..549E.
↑Polonsky, I. N.; O'Brien, D. M.; Kumer, J. B. et al. (April 2014). "Performance of a geostationary mission, geoCARB, to measure CO2, CH4 and CO column-averaged concentrations". Atmospheric Measurement Techniques7 (4): 959–981. doi:10.5194/amt-7-959-2014. Bibcode: 2014AMT.....7..959P.
↑Wang, J. S.; Kawa, S. R.; Eluszkiewicz, J. et al. (December 2014). "A regional CO 2 observing system simulation experiment for the ASCENDS satellite mission". Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics14 (23): 12897–12914. doi:10.5194/acp-14-12897-2014. Bibcode: 2014ACP....1412897W.
↑Key, Richard; Sander, Stanley; Eldering, Annmarie; Rider, David; Blavier, Jean-Francois; Bekker, Dmitriy; Wu, Yen-Hung; Manatt, Ken (2012). "The Geostationary Fourier Transform Spectrometer". 2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference. 3–10 March 2012. Big Sky, Montana.. doi:10.1109/AERO.2012.6187164.
↑Nassar, R.; McLinden, C.; Sioris, C. et al. (2019). "The Atmospheric Imaging Mission for Northern Regions: AIM-North". Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing45 (3–4): 781–811. doi:10.1080/07038992.2019.1643707. Bibcode: 2019CaJRS..45..423N.
↑Bovensmann, H.; Buchwitz, M.; Burrows, J. P.; Reuter, M.; Krings, T.; Gerilowski, K.; Schneising, O.; Heymann, J. et al. (2010). "A remote sensing technique for global monitoring of power plant CO 2 emissions from space and related applications". Atmospheric Measurement Techniques3 (4): 423–442. doi:10.5194/amt-3-781-2010. ISSN1867-8548. Bibcode: 2010AMT.....3..781B.
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