Thursday, 13 January 2000: 2:14 PM
Carbon monoxide (CO) plays a key role in regulating the oxidizing potential of
the troposphere through the hydroxyl (OH) radical. Oxidation of OH is the primary sink
for tropospheric methane and also a sink for a number of hydrofluorocarbons. OH also
serves to convert nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide to nitric acid and sulfuric acid,
respectively. However, current remote sensing techniques cannot measure OH, but
several instruments were developed to measure CO which largely controls OH. MAPS
(Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites) was the first instrument of this
kind
developed, and provided total column CO measurements from the space shuttle in April
and October 1994. The measurement technique is similar to that used for the MOPITT
instrument scheduled to fly this summer on the EOS AM-1 platform.
A three-dimensional tropospheric data assimilation system has been developed
using parametrized chemistry of source and sink of CO. Results using the PSAS scheme
with flow-dependent error covariances will be presented.
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