David P. Edwards

THE HITRAN MOLECULAR SPECTROSCOPIC DATABASE AND HAWKS (HITRAN ATMOSPHERIC WORKSTATION): 1996 EDITION

Since its first publication in 1973, the HITRAN molecular spectroscopic database has been recognized as the international standard for providing the necessary fundamental spectroscopic parameters for diverse atmospheric and laboratory transmission and radiance calculations. There have been periodic editions of HITRAN over the past decades as the database has been expanded and improved with respect to the molecular species and spectral range covered, the number of parameters included, and the accuracy of this information. The 1996 edition not only includes the customary line-by-line transition parameters familiar to HITRAN users, but also cross-section data, aerosol indices of refraction, software to filter and manipulate the data, and documentation. This paper describes the data and features that have been added or replaced since the previous edition of HITRAN. We also cite instances of critical data that are forthcoming.

The HITRAN molecular spectroscopic database and HAWKS (HITRAN atmospheric workstation)

Nineteen ninety-eight marks the 25th anniversary of the release of the first HITRAN database. HITRAN is recognized as the international standard of the fundamental spectroscopic parameters for diverse atmospheric and laboratory transmission and radiance calculations. There have been periodic editions of HITRAN over the past decades as the database has been expanded and improved with respect to the molecular species and spectral range covered, the number of parameters included, and the accuracy of this information. The 1996 edition not only includes the customary line-by-line transition parameters familiar to HITRAN users, but also cross-section data, aerosol indices of refraction, software to filter and manipulate the data, and documentation. This paper describes the data and features that have been added or replaced since the previous edition of HITRAN. We also cite instances of critical data that is forthcoming. A new release is planned for 1998.

Hyperspectral Earth Observation from IASI: Five Years of Accomplishments

The Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) forms the main infrared sounding component of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellitess (EUMETSATs) Meteorological Operation (MetOp)-A satellite (Klaes et al. 2007), which was launched in October 2006. This article presents the results of the first 4 yr of the operational IASI mission. The performance of the instrument is shown to be exceptional in terms of calibration and stability. The quality of the data has allowed the rapid use of the observations in operational numerical weather prediction (NWP) and the development of new products for atmospheric chemistry and climate studies, some of which were unexpected before launch. The assimilation of IASI observations in NWP models provides a significant forecast impact; in most cases the impact has been shown to be at least as large as for any previous instrument. In atmospheric chemistry, global distributions of gases, such as ozone and carbon monoxide, can be produ...

Satellite-observed pollution from Southern Hemisphere biomass burning.

Biomass burning is a major source of pollution in the tropical Southern Hemisphere, and fine mode carbonaceous particles are produced by the same combustion processes that emit carbon monoxide (CO). In this paper we examine these emissions with data from the Terra satellite, CO profiles from the Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument, and fine-mode aerosol optical depth (AOD) from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The satellite measurements are used in conjunction with calculations from the MOZART chemical transport model to examine the 2003 Southern Hemisphere burning season with particular emphasis on the months of peak fire activity in September and October. Pollutant emissions follow the occurrence of dry season fires, and the temporal variation and spatial distributions of MOPITT CO and MODIS AOD are similar. We examine the outflow from Africa and South America with emphasis on the impact of these emissions on clean remote regions. We present comparisons of MOPITT observations and ground-based interferometer data from Lauder, New Zealand, which indicate that intercontinental transport of biomass burning pollution from Africa often determines the local air quality. The correlation between enhancements of AOD and CO column for distinct biomass burning plumes is very good with correlation coefficients greater than 0.8. We present a method using MOPITT and MODIS data for estimating the emission ratio of aerosol number density to CO concentration which could prove useful as input to modeling studies. We also investigate decay of plumes from African fires following export into the Indian Ocean and compare the MOPITT and MODIS measurements as a way of estimating the regional aerosol lifetime. Vertical transport of biomass burning emissions is also examined using CO profile information. Low-altitude concentrations are very high close to source regions, but further downwind of the continents, vertical mixing takes place and results in more even CO vertical distributions. In regions of significant convection, particularly in the equatorial Indian Ocean, the CO mixing ratio is greater at higher altitudes, indicating vertical transport of biomass burning emissions to the upper troposphere.

Inventory of boreal fire emissions for North America in 2004: Importance of peat burning and pyroconvective injection

The summer of 2004 was one of the largest fire seasons on record for Alaska and western Canada. We construct a daily bottom-up fire emission inventory for that season, including consideration of peat burning and high-altitude (buoyant) injection, and evaluate it in a global chemical transport model (the GEOS-Chem CTM) simulation of CO through comparison with MOPITT satellite and ICARTT aircraft observations. The inventory is constructed by combining daily area burned reports and MODIS fire hot spots with estimates of fuel consumption and emission factors based on ecosystem type. We estimate the contribution from peat burning using drainage and peat distribution maps for Alaska and Canada; 17% of the reported 5.1 × 106 ha burned were located in peatlands in 2004. Our total estimate of North American fire emissions during the summer of 2004 is 30 Tg CO, including 11 Tg from peat. Including peat burning in the GEOS-Chem simulation improves agreement with MOPITT observations. The long-range transport of fire plumes observed by MOPITT suggests that the largest fires injected a significant fraction of their emissions in the upper troposphere.

Retrieval of tropospheric carbon monoxide for the MOPITT experiment

A retrieval method for deriving the tropospheric carbon monoxide (CO) profile and column amount under clear sky conditions has been developed for the Measurements of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument, scheduled for launch in 1998 onboard the EOS-AM1 satellite. This paper presents a description of the method along with analyses of retrieval information content. These analyses characterize the forward measurement sensitivity, the contribution of a priori information, and the retrieval vertical resolution. Ensembles of tropospheric CO profiles were compiled both from aircraft in situ measurements and from chemical model results and were used in retrieval experiments to characterize the method and to study the sensitivity to different parameters. Linear error analyses were carried out in parallel with the ensemble experiments. Results of these experiments and analyses indicate that MOPITT CO column measurements will have better than 10% precision, and CO profile measurement will have approximately three pieces of independent information that will resolve 3-5 tropospheric layers to approximately 10% precision. These analyses are important for understanding MOPITT data, both for application of data in tropospheric chemistry studies and for comparison with in situ measurements.

The United States' next generation of atmospheric composition and coastal ecosystem measurements : NASA's Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) Mission

The Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) mission was recommended by the National Research Councils (NRCs) Earth Science Decadal Survey to measure tropospheric trace gases and aerosols and coastal ocean phytoplankton, water quality, and biogeochemistry from geostationary orbit, providing continuous observations within the field of view. To fulfill the mandate and address the challenge put forth by the NRC, two GEO-CAPE Science Working Groups (SWGs), representing the atmospheric composition and ocean color disciplines, have developed realistic science objectives using input drawn from several community workshops. The GEO-CAPE mission will take advantage of this revolutionary advance in temporal frequency for both of these disciplines. Multiple observations per day are required to explore the physical, chemical, and dynamical processes that determine tropospheric composition and air quality over spatial scales ranging from urban to continental, and over temporal scales ranging from diu...

Radiative transfer modeling for the EOS Terra satellite Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument

This paper describes the radiative transfer modeling effort in support of the EOS Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument. MOPITT is due to be launched on the AM-1 Terra platform in the summer of 1999 and is a nadir-viewing gas correlation radiometer designed to measure CO and CH4 in the troposphere using a CO thermal channel at 4.7 μm and reflected solar channels for CO at 2.3 μm and CH4 at 2.2 μm. We describe the spectroscopic considerations and radiative transfer studies that have been performed for this instrument and the implications for operational algorithm design. We outline the construction of MOPITT project forward models, both the research codes and the fast transmittance module that forms part of the operational retrieval algorithm. Several different approaches have been considered for these models: full line-by-line calculations using the general purpose line-by-line transmittance and radiance model GENLN2, absorption coefficient look-up tables, and regression techniques using a recurrence parameterization of transmittance. These models are capable of reproducing MOPITT channel signals and their dependence on temperature, viewing geometry, and the mixing ratios of target and contaminating gases.

An updated parameterization for infrared emission and absorption by water vapor in the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Atmosphere Model

[1] An updated parameterization for the absorption and emission of infrared radiation by water vapor has been developed for the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The CAM is the latest version of the NCAR Community Climate Model (CCM). This updated treatment preserves the formulation of the radiative transfer equations using the absorptivity/emissivity method. However, the components of the absorptivity and emissivity related to water vapor have been replaced with new terms calculated with the General Line-by-line Atmospheric Transmittance and Radiance Model (GENLN2). The mean absolute errors in the surface and top-of-atmosphere clear-sky longwave fluxes for standard atmospheres are reduced to less than 1 W/m 2 . Mean absolute differences between the cooling rates from the original method and GENLN2 are typically 0.2 K/d. These differences are reduced by at least a factor of 3 using the updated parameterization. The updated parameterization increases the longwave cooling at 300 mbar by 0.4 to 0.7 K/d, and it decreases the cooling near 800 mbar by 0.2 to 0.6 K/d. The increased cooling is caused by line absorption and the foreign continuum in the rotation band, and the decreased cooling is caused by the self-continuum in the rotation band. These changes in the vertical profile of longwave cooling interact strongly with the parameterization of convection. The effects on the fluxes, diabatic cooling rates, and climate state are illustrated using simulations with the new climate model. INDEX TERMS: 3337 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Numerical modeling and data assimilation; 3319 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: General circulation; 3359 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Radiative processes; KEYWORDS: radiative transfer, water vapor, continuum, GCM, longwave cooling

Validation of CH4 and N2O measurements by the cryogenic limb array etalon spectrometer instrument on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite

CH 4 and N 2 O are useful as dynamical tracers of stratospheric air transport because of their long photochemical lifetimes over a wide range of altitudes. The cryogenic limb array etalon spectrometer (CLAES) instrument on the NASA UARS provided simultaneous global measurements of the altitude profiles of CH 4 and N 2 O mixing ratios in the stratosphere between October 1, 1991, and May 5, 1993. Data between January 9, 1992, and May 5, 1993 (388 days), have been processed using version 7 data processing software, and this paper is concerned with the assessment of the quality of this data set. CLAES is a limb-viewing emission instrument, and approximately 1200 profiles were obtained each 24-hour period for each constituent over a nominal altitude range of 100 to 0.1 mbar (16 to 64 km). Each latitude was sampled 30 times per day between latitudes 34°S and 80°N, or 34°N and 80°S depending on the yaw direction of the UARS, and nearly all local times were sampled in about 36 days. This data set extends the altitude, latitude, and seasonal coverage of previous experiments, particularly in relation to measurements at high winter latitudes. To arrive at estimates of experiment error, we compared CLAES profiles for both gases with a wide variety of correlative data from ground-based, rocket, aircraft, balloon, and space-borne sensors, looked at the repeatability of multiple profiles in the same location, and carried out empirical estimates of experiment error based on knowledge of instrument characteristics. These analyses indicate an average single-profile CH 4 systematic error of about 15% between 46 and 0.46 mbar, with CLAES biased high. The CH 4 random error over this range is 0.08 to 0.05 parts per million, which translates to about 7% in the midstratosphere. For N 2 O the indicated systematic error is less than 15% at all altitudes between 68 and 2 mbar, with CLAES tending to be high below 6.8 mbar and low above. The N 2 O random error is 20 to 5 ppb between 46 and 2 mbar, which also translates to 7% in the low to midstratosphere. Both tracers have useful profile information to as low as 68 mbar, excluding the tropics, and as high as 0.2 mbar (CH 4 ) and 1 mbar (N 2 O). The global fields show generally good spatial correlation and exhibit the major morphological and seasonal features seen in previous global field data. Several morphological features are pointed out for regions and conditions for which there have been essentially no previous data. These include the differential behavior of the tracer isopleths near and inside the Antarctic winter vortex, and local maxima in the tropics in 1992, probably associated with the Mount Pinatubo sulfate aerosol layer. Overall, the results of this validation exercise indicate that the version 7 CH 4 and N 2 O data sets can be used with good confidence for quantitative and qualitative studies of stratospheric and lower-mesospheric atmospheric structure and dynamics.