Analysis of global and regional CO burdens measured from space between 2000 and 2009 and validated by ground-based solar tracking spectrometers

Interannual variations in AIRS and MOPITT retrieved CO burdens are validated, corrected, and compared with CO emissions from wild fires from the Global Fire Emission Dataset (GFED2) inventory. Validation of daily mean CO total column (TC) retrievals from MOPITT version 3 and AIRS version 5 is performed through comparisons with archived TC data from the Network for Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) ground-based Fourier Transform Spectrometers (FTS) between March 2000 and December 2007. MOPITT V3 retrievals exhibit an increasing temporal bias with a rate of 1.4–1.8% per year; thus far, AIRS retrievals appear to be more stable. For the lowest CO values in the Southern Hemisphere (SH), AIRS TC retrievals overestimate FTS TC by 20%. MOPITT's bias and standard deviation do not depend on CO TC absolute values. Empirical corrections are derived for AIRS and MOPITT retrievals based on the observed annually averaged bias versus the FTS TC. Recently published MOPITT V4 is found to be in a good agreement with MOPITT V3 corrected by us (with exception of 2000–2001 period). With these corrections, CO burdens from AIRS V5 and MOPITT V3 (as well as MOPITT V4) come into good agreement in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere (NH) and in the tropical belt. In the SH, agreement between AIRS and MOPITT CO burdens is better for the larger CO TC in austral winter and worse in austral summer when CO TC are smaller. Before July 2008, all variations in retrieved CO burden can be explained by changes in fire emissions. After July 2008, global and tropical CO burdens decreased until October before recovering by the beginning of 2009. The NH CO burden also decreased but reached a minimum in January 2009 before starting to recover. The decrease in tropical CO burdens is explained by lower than usual fire emissions in South America and Indonesia. This decrease in tropical emissions also accounts for most of the change in the global CO burden. However, no such diminution of NH biomass burning is indicated by GFED2. Thus, the CO burden decrease in the NH could result from a combination of lower fossil fuel emissions during the global economic recession and transport of CO-poor air from the tropics. More extensive modeling will be required to fully resolve this issue

Связь между переносом метана в атмосферу и разрушением ледяного покрова Карского моря: спутниковые данные за 2003–2019 гг.

Satellite spectrometers operating on the outgoing long-wave IR (thermal) radiation of the Earth and placed in sunsynchronous polar orbits provide a wealth of information about Arctic methane (CH4) year-round, day and night. Their data are unique for estimating methane emissions from the warming Arctic, both for land and sea. The article analyzes concentrations of methane obtained by the AIRS spectrometer in conjunction with microwave satellite measurements of sea ice concentration. The data were filtered for cases of sufficiently high temperature contrast in the lower atmosphere. The focus is on the Kara Sea during autumn-early winter season between 2003 and January 2019. This sea underwent dramatic decline in the ice cover. This shelf zone is characterized by huge reserves of oil and natural gas (~90% methane), as well as presence of sub-seabed permafrost and methane hydrates. Seasonal cycle of atmospheric methane has a minimum in early summer and a maximum in early winter. During last 16 years both summer and winter concentrations were increasing, but with different rates. Positive summer trends over the Kara Sea and over Atlantic control area were close one to another. In winter the Kara Sea methane was growing faster than over Atlantic. The methane seasonal cycle amplitude tripled from 2003 to 2019. This phenomenon was considered in terms of growing methane flux from the sea. This high trend was induced by a fast decay of the sea ice in this area with ice concentrations dropped from 95 to 20%. If the current Arctic sea cover would decline further and open water area would grow then further increase of methane concentration over the ocean may be foreseen.Проанализированы ИК спутниковые данные о концентрации метана в слое атмосферы 0–4 км над Карским и Баренцевым морями в сравнении с микроволновыми спутниковыми измерениями ледяного покрова Карского моря. За последние 16 лет амплитуда сезонных вариаций метана над северной частью Карского моря выросла в 3 раза, а площадь поверхности того же района, свободная от льда, увеличилась в 4 раза. Сделан вывод о значительной роли ледяного покрова в экранировании потока метана в атмосферу

Carbon monoxide mixing ratios over Oklahoma between 2002 and 2009 retrieved from Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer spectra

CO mixing ratios for the lowermost 2-km atmospheric layer were retrieved from downwelling infrared (IR) radiance spectra of the clear sky measured between 2002 and 2009 by a zenith-viewing Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) deployed at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) observatory of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurements (ARM) Program near Lamont, Oklahoma. A version of a published earlier retrieval algorithm was improved and validated. Archived temperature and water vapor profiles retrieved from the same AERI spectra through automated ARM processing were used as input data for the CO retrievals. We found the archived water vapor profiles required additional constraint using SGP Microwave Radiometer retrievals of total precipitable water vapor. A correction for scattered solar light was developed as well. The retrieved CO was validated using simultaneous independently measured CO profiles from an aircraft. These tropospheric CO profiles were measured from the surface to altitudes of 4572 m a.s.l. once or twice a week between March 2006 and December 2008. The aircraft measurements were supplemented with ground-based CO measurements using a non-dispersive infrared gas correlation instrument at the SGP and retrievals from the Atmospheric IR Sounder (AIRS) above 5 km to create full tropospheric CO profiles. Comparison of the profiles convolved with averaging kernels to the AERI CO retrievals found a squared correlation coefficient of 0.57, a standard deviation of ±11.7 ppbv, a bias of -16 ppbv, and a slope of 0.92. Averaged seasonal and diurnal cycles measured by the AERI are compared with those measured continuously in situ at the SGP in the boundary layer. Monthly mean CO values measured by the AERI between 2002 and 2009 are compared with those measured by the AIRS over North America, the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes, and over the tropics

Ideas and Perspectives: A Strategic Assessment of Methane and Nitrous Oxide Measurements In the Marine Environment

In the current era of rapid climate change, accurate characterization of climate-relevant gas dynamics-namely production, consumption, and net emissions-is required for all biomes, especially those ecosystems most susceptible to the impact of change. Marine environments include regions that act as net sources or sinks for numerous climateactive trace gases including methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). The temporal and spatial distributions of CH4 and N2O are controlled by the interaction of complex biogeochemical and physical processes. To evaluate and quantify how these mechanisms affect marine CH4 and N2O cycling requires a combination of traditional scientific disciplines including oceanography, microbiology, and numerical modeling. Fundamental to these efforts is ensuring that the datasets produced by independent scientists are comparable and interoperable. Equally critical is transparent communication within the research community about the technical improvements required to increase our collective understanding of marine CH4 and N2O. A workshop sponsored by Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) was organized to enhance dialogue and collaborations pertaining to marine CH4 and N2O. Here, we summarize the outcomes from the workshop to describe the challenges and opportunities for near-future CH4 and N2O research in the marine environment

Interannual variations of the carbon monoxide tropospheric burden between 30ºN and 90ºN in 1996-2003: ground-based and satellite measurements, estimate of biomass burning emissions

Carbon monoxide total column amounts in the atmosphere were measured in the High Northern Hemisphere (30º-90º N, HNH) between January 1996 and December 2003 using Fourier Transform Infrared high resolution spectrometers installed at the NDSC (Network for Detection of Stratospheric Change) sites. A grating spectrometer of moderate resolution was employed for the same purpose at the Zvenigorod Research Station of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics near Moscow. CO mixing ratios were measured in the air samples obtained at the ground-level stations of the CMDL (Climate Modeling and Diagnostic Laboratory, NOAA) network. Total column CO amounts were measured from space by the Terra/MOPITT instrument between March, 2000, and December, 2003 (Edwards et al., 2004). Anomalies of monthly mean CO densities (related to a quiet period of 2000 - 2001) for different sites in the HNH were in agreement. This fact confirmed a good mixing of CO in the Northern Hemisphere on the montly basis that may be expected from a 1.5-2-month-long CO life-time. The data were integrated over the HNH reservoir (0-10 km in altitude and 30º-90º N in latitude) and the CO burden anomalies (in Tg) were analysed using a box model. Two CO sinks were taken into account: i) internal chemical removal in the reaction between CO and OH, and ii) transport of CO into the southertn part of the Northern hemisphere, where CO concentrations are usually lower. OH concentarations were taken from Spivakovsky et al. (2000). The air exchange through the 30º N boundary of the reservoir was estimated using the GEOS-CHEM model with a real meteorology of 1998 (Yurganov et al., 2004). The interannual variations of the sinks were neglected; a corresponding uncertainty in the retrieved source anomaly was estimated to be 20-30%. Since 1996 four years have been found to experience high CO emission of similar magnitude (1996, 1998, 2002, and 2003). During four years (1997, 1999, 2000, and 2001) the emissions were relatively low. Seasonal patterns of the emissions in active years were similar, maxima occured in July-August. However, in 2003 emissions in June-July were higher than in August. These semi-hemisphere averaged emission rates correlate with Siberian forest fire counts detected at night time by the ATSR radiometer of the ERS-2 satellite (R2 =0.51). The early peak of 2003 may be attributed to forest fires in Baikal region, Siberia. An inclusion of fire counts for other areas (Europe, North America) only worsen the correlation; this implies a decisive role of the Siberian fires for polluting the Northern Hemisphere troposphere (cf., Kasischke et al., 2005). It was estimated that the boreal forest fires during active years emit 30-60 Tg CO per month in July-August and 150-200 Tg annually. These emissions may be compared to industrial and transport pollution in the Northern Hemisphere estimated by Kasischke et al. (2005) as 290 Tg CO annually (i.e., 25 Tg monthly)

The relationship between methane transport to the atmosphere and the decay of the Kara Sea ice cover: satellite data for 2003–2019

Satellite spectrometers operating on the outgoing long-wave IR (thermal) radiation of the Earth and placed in sunsynchronous polar orbits provide a wealth of information about Arctic methane (CH4) year-round, day and night. Their data are unique for estimating methane emissions from the warming Arctic, both for land and sea. The article analyzes concentrations of methane obtained by the AIRS spectrometer in conjunction with microwave satellite measurements of sea ice concentration. The data were filtered for cases of sufficiently high temperature contrast in the lower atmosphere. The focus is on the Kara Sea during autumn-early winter season between 2003 and January 2019. This sea underwent dramatic decline in the ice cover. This shelf zone is characterized by huge reserves of oil and natural gas (~90% methane), as well as presence of sub-seabed permafrost and methane hydrates. Seasonal cycle of atmospheric methane has a minimum in early summer and a maximum in early winter. During last 16 years both summer and winter concentrations were increasing, but with different rates. Positive summer trends over the Kara Sea and over Atlantic control area were close one to another. In winter the Kara Sea methane was growing faster than over Atlantic. The methane seasonal cycle amplitude tripled from 2003 to 2019. This phenomenon was considered in terms of growing methane flux from the sea. This high trend was induced by a fast decay of the sea ice in this area with ice concentrations dropped from 95 to 20%. If the current Arctic sea cover would decline further and open water area would grow then further increase of methane concentration over the ocean may be foreseen