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| Titel |
CarbonSat: ESA's Earth Explorer 8 Candidate Mission |
| VerfasserIn |
Y. J. Meijer, P. Ingmann, A. Löscher |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2012
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 14 (2012) |
| Datensatznummer |
250060476
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The CarbonSat candidate mission is part of ESA’s Earth Explorer Programme. In 2010, two
candidate opportunity missions had been selected for feasibility and preliminary definition
studies. The missions, called FLEX and CarbonSat, are now in competition to become
ESA’s eighth Earth Explorer, both addressing key climate and environmental change
issues.
In this presentation we will provide a mission overview of CarbonSat with a focus on science.
CarbonSat’s primary mission objective is the quantification and monitoring of CO2 and CH4
sources and sinks from the local to the regional scale for i) a better understanding of the
processes that control carbon cycle dynamics and ii) an independent estimate of local
greenhouse gas emissions (fossil fuel, geological CO2 and CH4, etc.) in the context of
international treaties. A second priority objective is the monitoring/derivation of CO2 and
CH4 fluxes on regional to global scale. These objectives will be achieved by a unique
combination of frequent, high spatial resolution (2 x 2 km2) observations of XCO2 and
XCH4 coupled to inverse modelling schemes. The required random error of a single
measurement at ground-pixel resolution is of the order of between 1 and 3 ppm for
XCO2 and between 9 and 17 ppb for XCH4. High spatial resolution is essential in
order to maximize the probability for clear-sky observations and to identify flux hot
spots. Ideally, CarbonSat shall have a wide swath allowing a 6-day global repeat
cycle.
The CarbonSat observations will enable CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants,
localized industrial complexes, cities, and other large emitters to be objectively assessed at a
global scale. Similarly, the monitoring of natural gas pipelines and compressor station
leakage will become feasible. The detection and quantification of the substantial geological
greenhouse gas emission sources such as seeps, volcanoes and mud volcanoes will be
achieved for the first time.
CarbonSat’s Greenhouse Gas instrument will exploit a passive observing technique
measuring scattered solar light with imaging spectrometers. It will perform measurements of
CO2 and CH4 in combination with O2 to yield their dry column amounts. Spectral
absorptions of CO2 in the 1.6 μm and 2 μm bands, O2 in the 760 nm and CH4 in the 1.65 μm
spectral ranges measured with high spectral resolution of the order of between 0.03 and 0.3
nm and a high signal-to-noise ratio. The CarbonSat mission concept builds on the heritage
and lessons learned from SCIAMACHY, GOSAT and OCO(-2) to make strategically
important measurements of the amounts and distribution of CO2 and CH4 in the context of
Climate Change. |
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