Reading notes-10

The Tropospheric monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) will be part of ESA’s Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite platform scheduled for launch in late 2014. One of TROPOMI’s primary goals will be to accurately monitor methane(CH4) concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere by measuring spectra of sunlight backscattered by the Earth’s surface and atmosphere in the shortwave-infrared(SWIR) spectral range.

Absorption by CH4 along the lightpath allows for the spectroscopic retrieval of its atmospheric abundance given accurate knowledge of the lightpath. Scattering by aerosol and cirrus particles, however, can modify the lightpath substantially causing retrieval errors if not appropriately taken into account. We propose and evaluate a method to minimise these errors by simultaneously retrieving CH4 total column concentrations and scattering properties of the atmosphere.

The method exploits observations by TROPOMI’s SWIR and near-infrared(NIR) channels and is based on a parameterisation of particle amount, height distribution, and microphysical properties. Retrieval performance is tested for a trial ensemble of simulated observation that cover a realistic range of aerosol and cirrus loaded scenes. For more than 90% of the trials, residual scattering induced CH4 errors are less than 1%. Retrievals with residual errors larger than 1% and non-convergent retrievals typically occur for difficult scenes with high particle load or very small surface albedo.

ESA’s Sentinel-5 Precursor - due for launch at the end of 2014 - will complement a series of satellites that aim at accurately monitoring methane concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere. The Scanning Imaging Absorption spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography(SCIAMACHY) has been measuring CH4 concentrations since 2002. Using these measurements, Frankenberg et al were the first to show that space-based remote sensing can be a valuable tool for constraining CH4 fluxes across the surface-atmosphere boundary. Since February 2009, the Greenhouse gases observing satellite(GOSAT) has been providing CH4 concentration measurements which are currently subject to validation. In the midterm future, the Sentinel-5 Precursor will fill the gap between the currently orbiting satellites and later missions such as Sentinel-5. The common goal of all these missions is to provide a consistent record of atmospheric CH4 concentrations with the accuracy and spatiotemporal coverage that enable inverse modelling of CH4 sources on regional and weekly scales.

The common observational strategy is based on spectroscopic measurements of sunllight backscattered by the Earth’s surface and atmosphere in the shortwave-infrared (SWIR) spectral range. Absorption lines of CH4 can be used to infer the atmospheric concentration with high sensitivity to the Earth’s surface and lower atmosphere where sources are located. However, retrieval methods for the SWIR spectral range rely on accurate knowledge of the lightpath through the Earth’s atmosphere. Scattering by particles such as aeerosols, water and cirrus clouds can modify the lightpaath and induce retrieval errors that severely compromise the accuracy of space-based CH4 measurements. The lightpath modification due to particles strongly depends on particle amount, type, size, and height distribution, as well as on reflection properties of the Earth’s surface. Reliable prior information about all these parameters is typically not available, implying that CH4(in analogy to CO2) retrieval methods must aim at simultaneously inferring gas concentrations and a correction for scattering effects.

引自文章《TROPOMI aboard Sentinel-5 Precursor: Prospective performance of CH4 retrievals for
aerosol and cirrus loaded atmospheres》