The NASA orbiting carbon observatory: measuring the column-integrated atmospheric CO2 abundance from Space

David Crisp; Charles E. Miller; Philip L. DeCola

doi:10.1117/12.689570

3 October 2006 The NASA orbiting carbon observatory: measuring the column-averaged atmospheric CO₂ mole franction abundance from Space

David Crisp, Charles E. Miller, Philip L. DeCola

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6361, Sensors, Systems, and Next-Generation Satellites X; 63610H (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.689570
Event: SPIE Remote Sensing, 2006, Stockholm, Sweden

Abstract

The NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) will make space-based measurements of atmospheric CO₂ with the precision, resolution, and coverage needed to characterize CO₂ sources and sinks on regional scales and quantify their variability over the seasonal cycle. This Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) mission will be launched in late 2008 and will fly in a 705 km altitude, 1:26 PM sun-synchronous polar orbit that provides near-global coverage of the sunlit hemisphere with a 16-day ground track repeat cycle. OCO carries a single instrument that incorporates 3 high resolution grating spectrometers that will make boresighted measurements of reflected sunlight in near-infrared CO₂ and molecular oxygen (O₂) bands. These measurements will be combined to provide spatially resolved estimates of the column-averaged CO₂ dry air mole fraction, XCO₂. The instrument collects 12 to 24 X_CO₂ soundings/second over the sunlit portion of the orbit, yielding 200 to 400 soundings per degree of latitude, or 7 to 14 million soundings every 16 days. Thick clouds and aerosols will reduce the number of soundings available for X_CO₂ retrievals by 80-90%, but the remaining data is expected to yield XCO₂ estimates with accuracies of ~0.3 to 0.5% (1 to 2 ppm) on regional scales every month.

Citation Download Citation

David Crisp, Charles E. Miller, and Philip L. DeCola "The NASA orbiting carbon observatory: measuring the column-averaged atmospheric CO₂ mole franction abundance from Space", Proc. SPIE 6361, Sensors, Systems, and Next-Generation Satellites X, 63610H (3 October 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.689570

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