Scientific and Technical Assistance for the Deployment of a Flexible Airborne Spectrometer System During C-MAPExp and COMEX

Abstract

The COMEX (CO2 and MEthane eXperiment) campaign supports the mission definition of CarbonSat and HyspIRI (Hyperspectral Infrared Imager) by providing representative airborne remote sensing data MAMAP (Methane Airborne MAPper) for CarbonSat; the Airborne Visual InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer (Classic & Next Generation) AVIRISC/AVIRISNG for HyspIRI as well as ground-based and airborne insitu data. The objectives of the COMEX campaign activities are (see Campaign Implementation Plan (RD4)): 1. Investigate spatial/spectral resolution tradeoffs for CH4 anomaly detection and flux inversion by comparison of MAMAPderived emission estimates with AVIRIS/AVIRISNG derived data. 2. Evaluate sunglint observation geometry on CH4 retrievals for marine sources. 3. Characterize the effect of Surface Spectral Reflectance (SSR) heterogeneity on trace gas retrievals of CO2 and CH4 for medium and lowresolution spectrometry. 4. Identify benefits from joint SWIR/TIR (ShortWave InfraRed/Thermal InfraRed ) data for trace gas detection and retrieval by comparison of MAMAP and AVIRIS/AVIRISNG NIR/SWIR data with MAKO (Aerospace Corp.)TIR data. The ability to derive emission source strength for a range of strong emitting targets by remote sensing will be evaluated from combined AVIRISNG and MAMAP data, adding significant value to the HyspIRI campaign AVIRISNG dataset. The data will be used to quantify anomalies in atmospheric CO2 and CH4 from strong local greenhouse gas sources e.g. localized industrial complexes, landfills, etc. and to derive CO2 and CH4 emissions estimates from atmospheric gradient measurements. The original campaign concept was developed by University of Bremen and BRI. The COMEX campaign is funded bilaterally by NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). Whereas NASA funds the US part of the project via a contract with Dr. Ira Leifer, BRI (Bubbleology Research International), the contribution of MAMAP to the COMEX campaign is funded by ESA within the COMEXE project and NASA with respect to a 50 percent contribution to the flight-related costs of flying MAMAP on a US aircraft. The Data Acquisition Report (RD9) describes the instrumentation used, the measurements made by the team during the COMEX campaign in May/June 2014 and August/September 2014 in California, and an initial assessment of the data quality