Space-based measurements of carbon dioxide
Used to help answer questions about Earth's carbon cycle
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Through Carbon cycle, Carbon dioxide and Taiga
Purposes and highlights of findings
There are outstanding questions in carbon cycle science that satellite observations can help answer. The Earth system absorbs about half of all anthropogenic CO2 emissions. 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 CO2 flux under a different climate. For example, a forest may increase CO2 uptake due to the fertilization or β-effect, or it could release CO2 due to increased metabolism by microbes at higher temperatures. These questions are difficult to answer with historically spatially and temporally limited data sets.
Even though satellite observations of CO2 are somewhat recent, they have been used for a number of different purposes, some of which are highlighted here:
- Megacity CO2 enhancements were observed with the GOSAT satellite and minimum observable space-based changes in emissions were estimated.
- Satellite observations have been used for visualizing how CO2 is distributed globally, including studies that have focused on anthropogenic emissions.
- Flux estimates were made of CO2 into and out of different regions.
- Correlations were observed between anomalous temperatures and CO2 measurements in boreal regions.
- Zonal asymmetric patterns of CO2 were used to observe fossil fuel signatures.
- Emission ratios with methane were measured from forest fires.
- CO2 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.
- OCO-2 observations were used to estimate CO2 emissions from wildfires in Indonesia in 2015.
- OCO-2 observations were also used to estimate the excess land-ocean flux due to the 2014–16 El Niño event.
- GOSAT observations were used to attribute 2010-2011 El Niño Modoki on the Brazilian carbon balance.
- OCO-2 observations were used to quantify CO2 emissions from individual power plants, demonstrating the potential for future space-based CO2 emission monitoring.
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Challenges
Remote sensing of trace gases has several challenges. Most techniques rely on observing infrared light reflected off Earth's surface. Because these instruments use spectroscopy, at each sounding footprint a spectrum is recorded—this means there is a significantly (about 1000×) more data to transfer than what would be required of just an RGB pixel. Changes in surface albedo and viewing angles may affect measurements, and satellites may employ different viewing modes over different locations; these may be accounted for in the algorithms used to convert raw into final measurements. As with other space-based instruments, space debris must be avoided to prevent damage.
Water vapor can dilute other gases in air and thus change the amount of CO2 in a column above the surface of the Earth, so often column-average dry-air mole fractions (XCO2) 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. 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 XCO2, space-based observations may also be compared with ground-based observations such as those from the TCCON.
List of instruments
Partial column measurements
In addition to the total column measurements of CO2 down to the ground, there have been several limb sounders that have measured CO2 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.
- ACE-FTS (Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment-Fourier Transform Spectrometer) onboard SCISAT-1 launched 13 August 2003 measures solar spectra, from which profiles of CO2 can be calculated.
- SOFIE (Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment) is a limb sounder on board the AIM satellite launched 25 April 2007.
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 CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) is a lidar-based mission
- Geostationary Fourier Transform Spectrometer (GeoFTS)
- Atmospheric Imaging Mission for Northern regions (AIM-North) would involve a constellation of two satellites in elliptical orbits to focus on northern regions. 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.