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GES DISC Greenhouse Gas Data Sets and Associated Services

NASA Goddard Earth Sciences (GES) Data and Information Services Center (DISC) archives and distributes rich collections of data on atmospheric greenhouse gases from multiple missions. Hosted data include those from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) mission (which has observed CO2, CH4, ozone, and water vapor since 2002); legacy water vapor and ozone retrievals from TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS); and Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) going back to the early 1980s. GES DISC also archives and supports data from seven projects of the Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) program that have ozone and water vapor records. Greenhouse gases data from the A-Train satellite constellation is also available: (1) Aura-Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) ozone, nitrous oxide, and water vapor since 2004; (2) Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) CO2 observations since 2009 from the Atmospheric CO2 Observations from Space (ACOS) task; and (3) Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) CO2 data since 2014. The most recent related data set that the GES DISC archives is methane flux for North America, as part of NASAs Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) project. This dataset contains estimates of methane emission in North America based on an inversion of the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model constrained by GOSAT observations (Turner et al., 2015). Along with data stewardship, an important focus area of the GES DISC is to enhance the usability of its data and broaden its user base. Users have unrestricted access to a new user-friendly search interface, which includes many services such as variable subsetting, format conversion, quality screening, and quick browse. The majority of the GES DISC data sets are also accessible through Open-source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol (OPeNDAP) and Web Coverage Service (WCS). The latter two services provide more options for specialized subsetting, format conversion, and image viewing. Additional data exploration, data preview, and preliminary analysis capabilities are available via NASA Giovanni, which obviates the need forusers to download the data (Acker and Leptoukh, 2007). Giovanni provides a bridge between the data and science and has been very successful in extending GES DISC data to educational users and to users with limited resources.

data ordering↗

The 2015-2016 El Nino and the Response of the Carbon Cycle: Findings from NASA's OCO-2 Mission

The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the most important mode of tropical climate variability on interannual to decadal time scales. Correlations between atmospheric CO2 growth rate and ENSO activity are relatively well known but the magnitude of this correlation, the contribution from tropical marine vs. terrestrial flux components, and the causal mechanisms, are poorly constrained in space and time. The launch of NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission in July 2014 was rather timely given the development of strong ENSO conditions over the tropical Pacific Ocean in 2015-2016. In this presentation, we will discuss how the high-density observations from OCO-2 provided us with a novel dataset to resolve the linkages between El Nino and atmospheric CO2. Along with information from in situ observations of ÎpCO2 from NOAA's Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) project and atmospheric CO2 from the Scripps CO2 Program, and other remote-sensing missions, we are able to piece together the time dependent response of atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the Tropics. Our findings confirm the hypothesis from studies following the 1997-1998 El Nino event that an early reduction in CO2 outgassing from the tropical Pacific Ocean is later reversed by enhanced net CO2 emissions from the terrestrial biosphere. This implies that a component of the interannual variability (IAV) in the growth rate of atmospheric CO2, which has typically been used to constrain the climate sensitivity of tropical land carbon fluxes, is strongly influenced and modified by ocean fluxes during the early phase of the ENSO event. Our analyses shed further light on the understanding of the marine vs. terrestrial partitioning of tropical carbon fluxes during El Nino events, their relative contributions to the global atmospheric CO2 growth rate, and provide clues about the sensitivity of the carbon cycle to climate forcing on interannual time scales.

CO2↗

Proposed Trace Gas Measurements Over the Western United States for TROPOMI Validation

The Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment (AJAX), located in the Bay Area of California, is a joint effort between NASA Ames Research Center and H211, LCC. AJAX makes in-situ airborne measurements of trace gases 2-4 times per month, resulting in over 216 flights since 2011. Current measurements include ozone (O3), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), water (H2O), formaldehyde (HCHO), and meteorological measurements (i.e., ambient pressure, temperature, and 3D winds). Currently, the AJAX team is working to incorporate nitrogen dioxide (NO2) measurements with a Cavity Attenuated Phase Shift Spectrometer (CAPS). Successful science flights coincident with satellite overpasses have been performed since 2011 by the Alpha Jet, with more than 40 flights under the Greenhouse Observing SATellite (GOSAT) and several flights under the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2). Results from these flights, which have covered a range of different surfaces and seasonal conditions, will be presented. In-situ vertical profiles of O3, CO2, CH4, H2O, HCHO, and NO2 from the surface to 28,000 feet made by AJAX will also be valuable for satellite validation of data products obtained from the TROPOspheric Montoring Instrument (TROPOMI). TROPOMI is on board the Copernicus Sentinel-5 precursor (S5p) satellite, with level 2 products including O3, CO, CH4, HCHO, NO2, and aerosols.

Parworth, Caroline L.↗

The 2015-2016 El Nino and the Response of the Carbon Cycle: Findings from NASA's OCO-2 Mission

The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the most important mode of tropical climate variability on interannual to decadal time scales. Correlations between atmospheric CO2 growth rate and ENSO activity are relatively well known but the magnitude of this correlation, the contribution from tropical marine vs. terrestrial flux components, and the causal mechanisms, are poorly constrained in space and time. The launch of NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission in July 2014 was rather timely given the development of strong ENSO conditions over the tropical Pacific Ocean in 2015-2016. In this presentation, we will discuss how the high-density observations from OCO-2 provided us with a novel dataset to resolve the linkages between El Nino and atmospheric CO2. Along with information from in situ observations of CO2 from NOAA's Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) project and atmospheric CO2 from the Scripps CO2 Program, and other remote-sensing missions, we are able to piece together the time dependent response of atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the Tropics. Our findings confirm the hypothesis from studies following the 1997-1998 El Nino event that an early reduction in CO2 outgassing from the tropical Pacific Ocean is later reversed by enhanced net CO2 emissions from the terrestrial biosphere. This implies that a component of the interannual variability (IAV) in the growth rate of atmospheric CO2, which has typically been used to constrain the climate sensitivity of tropical land carbon fluxes, is strongly influenced and modified by ocean fluxes during the early phase of the ENSO event. Our analyses shed further light on the understanding of the marine vs. terrestrial partitioning of tropical carbon fluxes during El Nino events, their relative contributions to the global atmospheric CO2 growth rate, and provide clues about the sensitivity of the carbon cycle to climate forcing on interannual time scales.

OCO-2↗

Joint Observation Estimates of XCO2

Localized, correlated biases exist in OCO-2 (Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2) data. These biases do not improve with averaging. These have been noted by O'Dell (various OCO-2 telecons), Worden (2017), Kulawik (2018). We propose to utilize information from adjacent observations to reduce this bias. This works on the assumption that grouping the observations allows the system to find a better, global minimum. Pooling adjacent observations could allow more accurate characterization of interferents (e.g. retrieving additional albedo parameters), reducing entanglement with CO2.

Kulawik, Susan S.↗

A Global Spatially Contiguous Solar-Induced Fluorescence (CSIF) Dataset Using Neural Networks

Satellite-retrieved solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) has shown great potential to monitor the photosynthetic activity of terrestrial ecosystems. However, several issues, including low spatial and temporal resolution of the gridded datasets and high uncertainty of the individual retrievals, limit the applications of SIF. In addition, inconsistency in measurement footprints also hinders the direct comparison between gross primary production (GPP) from eddy covariance (EC) flux towers and satellite-retrieved SIF. In this study, by training a neural network (NN) with surface reflectance from the MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and SIF from Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), we generated two global spatially contiguous SIF (CSIF) datasets at moderate spatiotemporal (0.05° 4-day) resolutions during the MODIS era, one for clear-sky conditions (2000–2017) and the other one in all-sky conditions (2000–2016). The clear-sky instantaneous CSIF (CSIF(sub clear-inst)) shows high accuracy against the clear-sky OCO-2 SIF and little bias across biome types. The all-sky daily average CSIF (CSIF(sub all-daily)) dataset exhibits strong spatial, seasonal and interannual dynamics that are consistent with daily SIF from OCO-2 and the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2). An increasing trend (0.39 %) of annual average CSIFall-daily is also found, confirming the greening of Earth in most regions. Since the difference between satellite-observed SIF and CSIF is mostly caused by the environmental down-regulation on SIF(sub yield), the ratio between OCO-2 SIF and CSIF(sub clear-inst) can be an effective indicator of drought stress that is more sensitive than the normalized difference vegetation index and enhanced vegetation index. By comparing CSIF(sub all-daily) with GPP estimates from 40 EC flux towers across the globe, we find a large cross-site variation (c.v. = 0.36) of the GPP–SIF relationship with the highest regression slopes for evergreen needleleaf forest. However, the cross-biome variation is relatively limited (c.v. = 0.15). These two contiguous SIF datasets and the derived GPP–SIF relationship enable a better understanding of the spatial and temporal variations of the GPP across biomes and climate.

Zhang, Yao↗

Validation of GOSAT Data Products; Interim Report on the GOSAT/TANSO Project

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) Team has continued working closely with the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) team to (i) conduct vicarious calibration experiments in Railroad Valley, NV, U.S.A., (ii) retrieve estimates of X CO2 from OCO-2 and GOSAT TANSO-FTS data, and (iii) validate these products using internationally recognized standards. The OCO-/GOSAT relationship was reinforced in March 2015 with the signing a new Memorandum of Understanding between NASA and the GOSAT and GOSAT-2 partners. Over the past year, while the GOSAT team has been finalizing the V201 product, the OCO-2 team has focused primarily on the delivery of the OCO-2 product, providing new opportunities for cross calibration of the OCO-2 and GOSAT instruments and cross validation of their products. These efforts are just now producing results. Members of the OCO-2 team have also continued the analysis of the GOSAT V161.161 data and the ACOS B3.5 products. Those efforts have produced 2 new refereed publications and several others in review. The OCO-2 now preparing to reprocess the entire GOSAT TANSO-FTS data record using the GOSAT V201 product and OCO-2 B7 algorithm to produce a 7-year, multi-satellite climate data record for X(sub CO2).

Wennberg, Paul↗

In-Flight Thermal Performance of the OCO-2 Instrument

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), launched on July 2, 2014, continues to operate nominally after successfully completing its primary mission of two years in space. It is hoped that, following a Senior Review and proposal phase, NASA will fund a two year extended mission, which would start in June 2017. The thermal design provides three temperature zones required by the instrument, specifically at 120 K, 267 K and 297 K. A single-stage pulse tube cryocooler provides refrigeration to three focal plane arrays to 120 K, via a high conductance flexible thermal strap. A variable conductance heat pipe (VCHP) based heat rejection system transports waste heat from the instrument, located inside the spacecraft, to the space-viewing radiators, providing tight temperature control of the spectrometer optics to 267 K, and maintains the electronics and cryocooler at 297 K. Soon after entering the A-Train on August 3, 2014, the optics and focal planes were cooled to their operating temperatures. Ice contamination of the cryogenic surfaces led to increased cryocooler loads and drove the need for two focal plane decontamination cycles between September 2014 and October 2014. A decrease in the radiometric gain of the O2 A-Band channel led to five additional focal plane decontamination cycles, between January 2015 and February 2017, and is now the primary driver of decontamination cycles. This paper provides a general overview of the thermal and cryogenic system design and reviews the inflight thermal performance for the mission.

Na-Nakornpanom, Arthur↗

Southern California Megacity CO2, CH4, and CO Flux Estimates Using Ground- and Space-Based Remote Sensing and a Lagrangian Model

We estimate the overall CO2, CH4, and CO flux from the South Coast Air Basin using an inversion that couples Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) and Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) observations, with the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model and the Open-source Data Inventory for Anthropogenic CO2 (ODIAC). Using TCCON data we estimate the direct net CO2 flux from the So-CAB to be 104±26 Tg CO2 yr(exp -1) for the study period of July 2013–August 2016. We obtain a slightly higher estimate of 120±30 Tg CO2 yr(exp -1) using OCO-2 data. These CO2 emission estimates are on the low end of previous work. Our net CH4 (360±90 Gg CH4 y(exp -1)) flux estimate is in agreement with central values from previous top-down studies going back to 2010 (342–440 Gg CH4 yr(exp -1)). CO emissions are estimated at 487±122 Gg CO yr(exp -1), much lower than previous top-down estimates (1440 Gg CO yr(exp -1)). Given the decreasing emissions of CO, this finding is not unexpected. We perform sensitivity tests to estimate how much errors in the prior, errors in the covariance, different inversion schemes, or a coarser dynamical model influence the emission estimates. Overall, the uncertainty is estimated to be 25%, with the largest contribution from the dynamical model. Lessons learned here may help in future inversions of satellite data over urban areas.

Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON)↗

Monitoring Ocean CO2 Fluxes from Space: GOSAT and OCO-2

The ocean is a major component of the global carbon cycle, emitting over 330 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere each year, or about 10 times that emitted fossil fuel combustion and all other human activities [1, 2]. The ocean reabsorbs a comparable amount of CO2 each year, along with ~25% of the CO2 emitted by these human activities. The nature and geographic distribution of the processes controlling these ocean CO2 fluxes are still poorly constrained by observations. A better understanding of these processes is essential to predict how this important CO2 sink may evolve as the climate changes.While in situ measurements of ocean CO2 fluxes can be very precise, the sampling density is far too sparse to quantify ocean CO2 sources and sinks over much of the globe. One way to improve the spatial resolution, coverage, and sampling frequency is to make observations of the column averaged CO2 dry air mole fraction, XCO2, from space [4, 5, 6]. Such measurements could provide global coverage at high resolution (< 100 km) on monthly time scales. High precision (< 1 part per million, ppm) is essential to resolve the small, near-surface CO2 variations associated with ocean fluxes and to better constrain the CO2 transport over the ocean. The Japanese Greenhouse gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) and the NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) were first two space based sensors designed specifically for this task. GOSAT was successfully launched on January 23, 2009, and has been returning measurements of XCO2 since April 2009. The OCO mission was lost in February 2009, when its launch vehicle malfunctioned and failed to reach orbit. In early 2010, NASA authorized a re-flight of OCO, called OCO-2, which is currently under development.

GOSAT↗

A Preview of the OCO-2 Spatial and Temporal Sampling Strategy

For routine science observations, the OC0-2 spacecraft bus points the instrument bore sight either at the local nadir (85 < 85deg) or at the glint spot (85 < 81 deg) and collects -106 soundings/day over the sunlit hemisphere. center dot Nadir observations: expected to yield more spatially-homogeneous optical paths in partially cloudy regions and over topographically rough land regions center dot Glint observations are expected to yield (much) higher SNR over dark ocean or ice covered surfaces. center dot For both glint and nadir observations, the spacecraft performs a yaw maneuver to orient the long axis of the spectrometer slits perpendicular to the principle plane center dot The nominal plan is to alternate between glint and nadir observations on alternate 16-day ground repeat cycles, but this strategy may be modified to maximize coverage Target observations: For calibration and validation, the spacecraft bus can also point the instrument bore sight at a stationary surface target center dot Collects up to 12,000 soundings at observing zenith angles from +75deg GEO CL-

Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2↗