Extended Abstract (2.9M)5B.3
Global Climatology of Tropospheric CO from the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS)
Wallace McMillan, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD; and L. Yurganov, K. Evans, and C. D. Barnet
Five years of CO retrievals from the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) onboard NASA's Aqua satellite reveal variations in tropospheric CO on timescales from twelve hours to five years. The shorter timescales are invaluable to monitor daily variations in CO emissions, for three-dimensional tracking of atmospheric motions, and for insights into atmospheric mixing. Previous studies have utilized AIRS CO retrievals over the course of days to weeks to track plumes from large forest fires. Substantial interannual variations demonstrate year-to-year changes in rainfall and drought patterns in different seasons. We see such interannual variations in the biomass burning emissions from the Northern Hemisphere's boreal forests and South America, while industrial contributions are evident at smaller magnitudes on seasonal timescales. Variations on multi-year timescales exhibit the influence of large scale atmospheric perturbations including ENSO. In particular, we observe a quasi-biennial variation in CO emissions from Indonesia with varying magnitudes in peak emission occurring in 2002, 2004, and 2006. Examining satellite rainfall measurements over Indonesia, we find the enhanced CO emission correlates with occasions of less rainfall during the month of October. A simple CO inverse model starting from MOPITT CO observations also finds Indonesian CO emissions peaked in 2002, 2004, and 2006 relative to 2000-2001. Unfortunately, neither AIRS nor MOPITT was in orbit during the ENSO year of 1997-1998 when Indonesia experienced horrendous fires. Continuing this satellite record of tropospheric CO with measurements from the European IASI instrument will permit construction of a long time-series useful for further investigations of climatological variations in CO emissions and their impact on the health of the atmosphere.
Session 5B, General Climate Studies: Observations I
Tuesday, 22 January 2008, 8:30 AM-9:45 AM, 217-218
Previous paper Next paper
Recorded presentation