Mapping spectroscopic uncertainties into prospective methane retrieval errors from Sentinel-5 and its precursor

Checa-Garcia, R.; Landgraf, J.; Galli, André; Hase, F.; Velazco, V. A.; Tran, H.; Boudon, V.; Alkemade, F.; Butz, A. (2015). Mapping spectroscopic uncertainties into prospective methane retrieval errors from Sentinel-5 and its precursor. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT), 8(9), pp. 3617-3629. Copernicus Publications 10.5194/amt-8-3617-2015

[img]
Preview
Text
amt-8-3617-2015.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY).

Download (8MB) | Preview

Sentinel-5 (S5) and its precursor (S5P) are future European satellite missions aiming at global monitoring of methane (CH4) column-average dry air mole fractions (XCH4). The spectrometers to be deployed onboard the satellites record spectra of sunlight backscattered from the Earth's surface and atmosphere. In particular, they exploit CH4 absorption in the shortwave infrared spectral range around 1.65 mu m (S5 only) and 2.35 mu m (both S5 and S5P) wavelength. Given an accuracy goal of better than 2% for XCH4 to be delivered on regional scales, assessment and reduction of potential sources of systematic error such as spectroscopic uncertainties is crucial. Here, we investigate how spectroscopic errors propagate into retrieval errors on the global scale. To this end, absorption spectra of a ground-based Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) operating at very high spectral resolution serve as estimate for the quality of the spectroscopic parameters. Feeding the FTS fitting residuals as a perturbation into a global ensemble of simulated S5- and S5P-like spectra at relatively low spectral resolution, XCH4 retrieval errors exceed 0.6% in large parts of the world and show systematic correlations on regional scales, calling for improved spectroscopic parameters.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Physics Institute > Space Research and Planetary Sciences

UniBE Contributor:

Galli, A

Subjects:

500 Science > 520 Astronomy
500 Science > 530 Physics

ISSN:

1867-1381

Publisher:

Copernicus Publications

Language:

English

Submitter:

Katharina Weyeneth-Moser

Date Deposited:

17 Jun 2016 14:30

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:56

Publisher DOI:

10.5194/amt-8-3617-2015

Web of Science ID:

000362458000005

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.81950

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/81950

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback