The Orbiting Carbon
Observatory (OCO) mission will deliver space-based observations of atmospheric
CO2 with the potential to resolve many of the uncertainties in the
spatial and temporal variability of carbon sources and sinks. Our assessments of the measurement
requirements for space-based remote sensing of atmospheric CO2 conclude
that the data must support retrievals of the column-averaged CO2 dry
air mole fraction, XCO2,
with precisions of 3 to 4 ppm to resolve the annually averaged gradients between the Northern and Southern hemispheres, but higher
precision (1 to 2 ppm) will be needed to resolve East-West gradients and
questions like the location and spatial extent of the Northern Hemisphere
terrestrial carbon sink. These
conclusions are derived from the results
of observational system simulation experiments (OSSEs) and synthesis inversion
models [Rayner and O’Brien, 2001; O’Brien and Rayner, 2002; Rayner et al., 2002]. The XCO2 precision
requirements also considered the OCO mission design, the amplitude of XCO2 spatial and temporal gradients, and the relationship between XCO2 data
precision and regional scale surface CO2 flux uncertainties inferred
from XCO2 data.
Author: C. E. Miller, D. Crisp, P. L. DeCola, S. C. Olsen, et al (charles dot e dot miller at jpl dot nasa dot gov)
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