Validation of version-4.61 methane and nitrous oxide observed by MIPAS

Year: 2009

Authors: Payan S., Camy-Peyret C., Oelhaf H., Wetzel G., Maucher G., Keim C., Pirre M., Huret N., Engel A., Volk M.C., Kuellmann H., .Kuttippurath J., Cortesi U., Bianchini G., Mencaraglia F., Raspollini P., Redaelli G., Vigouroux C., DeMazìere M., Mikuteit S., Blumenstock T., Velazco V., Notholt J., Mahieu E., Duchatelet P., Smale D., Wood S., Jones N., Piccolo C., Payne V., Bracher A., Glatthor N., Stiller G., Grunow K., Jeseck P., Te Y., Butz A.

Autors Affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique Moleculaire Pour l\’Atmosph`ere et l\’Astrophysique, Universit´e Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, Paris, France; Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany; Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l\’Environnement, CNRS, Orleans, France; Institut für Atmosp?are und Umwelt, J. W. Goethe Universi?at Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany; Institute of Environmental Physics, Institute of Remote Sensing, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany; Istituto di Fisica Applicata Nello Carrara, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Universit`a di l\’Aquila, Dipartimento di Fisica, L\’Aquila, Italy; Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Brussels, Belgium; Institut d\’Astrophysique et de ?eophysique, University of Lìege (ULg), Lìege, Belgium; National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Lauder, Otago, New Zealand; University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia; Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Department of Physics, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom; Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc, Lexington, MA, United States; Meteorologisches Institut der FU Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Institut für Umweltphysik, University of Heidelberg, Germany; Laboratoire de et´eorologie Dynamique, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France

Abstract: The ENVISAT validation programme for the atmospheric instruments MIPAS, SCIAMACHY and GOMOS is based on a number of balloon-borne, aircraft, satellite and ground-based correlative measurements. In particular the activities of validation scientists were coordinated by ESA within the ENVISAT Stratospheric Aircraft and Balloon Campaign or ESABC. As part of a series of similar papers on other species [this issue] and in parallel to the contribution of the individual validation teams, the present paper provides a synthesis of comparisons performed between MIPAS CH4 and N2O profiles produced by the current ESA operational software (Instrument Processing Facility version4.61 or IPF v4.61, full resolution MIPAS data covering the period 9 July 2002 to 26 March 2004) and correlative measurements obtained from balloon and aircraft experiments as well as from satellite sensors or from ground-based instruments. In the middle stratosphere, no significant bias is observed between MIPAS and correlative measurements, and MIPAS is providing a very consistent and global picture of the distribution of CH4 and N2O in this region. In average, the MIPAS CH4 values show a small positive bias in the lower stratosphere of about 5%. A similar situation is observed for N2O with a positive bias of 4%. In the lower stratosphere/upper troposphere (UT/LS) the individual used MIPAS data version 4.61 still exhibits some unphysical oscillations in individual CH4 and N2O profiles caused by the processing algorithm (with almost no regularization). Takingthese problems into account, the MIPAS CH4 and N2O pro-files are behaving as expected from the internal error estimation of IPF v4.61 and the estimated errors of the correlative measurements.

Journal/Review: ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS (PRINT)

Volume: 9 (2)      Pages from: 413  to: 442

KeyWords: airborne sensing; airborne survey; algorithm; atmospheric chemistry; balloon observation; Envisat-1; estimation method; ground-based measurement; methane; model validation; nitrous oxide; sampling bias; satellite imagery; SCIAMACHY; stratosphere; troposphere; vertical profile
DOI: 10.5194/acp-9-413-2009

Citations: 33
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