The Impact of Orbital Sampling on Stratospheric Trend Detection and Derivation of Tropical Vertical Velocities

We will show the effect of orbital sampling on satellite measurements of stratospheric temperature and several trace gases. In particular, we will show the impact of sampling in terms of the sampling bias, the induced changes in trends and their detectability, and, the induced changes in derived tropical mean vertical velocities. We calculate these sampling induced artifacts by interpolating CMAM30-SD model fields (used as a proxy for the real atmosphere) to the real sampling patterns of three satellite instruments: Aura MLS, HALOE, and ACE-FTS. MLS allows us to study the impact of a dense and relatively uniform sampling pattern, in contrast to the coarse non-uniform sampling patterns characteristic of solar occultation instruments such as HALOE and ACE-FTS.

© California Institute of Technology. U.S. Government sponsorship acknowledged.