2A.6 The OCO-3 Mission: Performance of the Snapshot Area Map and Target Mode Observations and Coincident Measurements with the OMPS and TROPOMI Air Quality Sensors

Monday, 13 January 2020: 11:45 AM
207 (Boston Convention and Exhibition Center)
T. P Kurosu, JPL, Pasadena, CA; and A. Eldering, R. R. Basilio, M. W. Bennett, C. O'Dell, P. Somkuti, T. E. Taylor, M. Kiehl, R. Nelson, G. D. Spiers, B. M. Fisher, R. P. Pavlick, G. B. Osterman, J. Laughner, R. Rosenberg, G. R. Keller Rodrigues, S. Yu, Y. Marchetti, D. Crisp, and P. O. Wennberg

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 (OCO-3) was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on 4 May 2019 and was successfully installed on 10 May 2019. First Light occurred in late June 2019, and the in-orbit check out of the instrument extended through July 2019. OCO-3 records reflected sunlight in the near-Infra Red spectral region to estimate the column average CO2 dry air mole fraction (XCO2) and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF). It complements the OCO-2 mission by employing a dedicated Snapshot Area Mode (SAM) to map spatial areas of up to 80x80 km2 on the Earth’s surface, including cities, volcanoes, and photosynthetically active surface types. The inclination of the ISS orbit limits OCO-3 to observations within +/- 52º latitude, but allows measurements at all times of day between sunrise and sunset to resolve diurnal variations in XCO2 and SIF.

CO2 emissions and air quality are closely linked, particularly over large urban agglomerates. OCO-3’s Snapshot Area Mode allows, for the first time, to conduct detailed studies of the relationship between CO2 emissions and air quality tracers over megacities. Compared to CO2, NO2 is short-lived and can serve as indicator not only for temporally and locally enhanced fossil fuel emissions, but also for longer-term trends of urban development and growth. This presentation focuses on the comparison and correlation of OCO-3 SAM and Target Mode measurements of XCO2 with NO2 observations from NASA’s Ozone Monitoring and Profiler Suite on Suomi/NPP and JPSS-1 and ESA’s Sentinel-5 Precursor/TROPOMI. We present details on the performance of selected OCO-3 SAM and Target Mode observations, identify temporally and spatially near-coincident OMPS and TROPOMI measurements, and derive correlation statistics between CO2 and the air quality tracers, with the aim to establish coincidence data record over the OCO-3 life time. For SIF, we report direct comparisons of OCO-3 and TROPOMI measurements.

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