James R. Drummond

Early mission planning for the MOPITT instrument

The Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument will monitor the global concentrations of carbon monoxide and methane. It will be flown on the Earth Observing Satellite, Terra (EOS-AM1), scheduled for launch late in 1999. This paper describes the proposed early mission operations of MOPITT.

MOPITT validation using ground-based IR spectroscopy

MOPITT is a nadir-viewing gas correlation radiometer due to be launched aboard the EOS Terra platform. The feasibility of MOPITT data validation using ground-based sun-viewing spectrometers of moderate resolution is investigated. Several instruments with a spectral resolution of approximately 0.2 cm-1 are now operating in Russia and in China for the monitoring of CO and CH4. A spectrometer of this type has been tested and improved at the University of Toronto. It has also been compared with other spectroscopic instruments in field conditions. The results of these comparisons, and the prospects for further work are presented and discussed.

EOS MOPITT experiment: extracting the information from the measurements

This paper will serve as an overview of the challenges to the recovery of information on atmospheric CO and CH4 from the measurements made by the MOPITT instrument that has been described by Drummond et al. It will also provide a context and introduction to several of the following papers that go into greater detail on particular topics, and outline plans for the data processing. Here we briefly outline the principles of correlation radiometry as used by MOPITT, and introduce the principles behind the retrievals. After noting plans for data processing, we discuss our approach to data validation, and the ability to see global distributions of CO in the MOPITT data.

MOPITT airborne validation instrument : MOPITT-A

The Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere-Aircraft (MOPITT-A) instrument is being constructed at the University of Toronto, as a primary data validation tool for the Terra based MOPITT instrument. MOPITT-A is designed to operate aboard a NASA ER-2 research aircraft and as such must be rugged and field serviceable while maintaining the same characteristics as the satellite instrument. The resulting instrument is a hybrid of flight space components with commercial devices. Calibration data generated by both instruments, at the U of T Instrument Calibration Facility (ICF) will play a key role in data validation.

Pre-flight testing of the MOPITT instrument

The Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument will monitor the global concentrations of carbon monoxide and methane. It will be flown on the Earth Observing Satellite, EOS-AM1, scheduled for launch late in 1999. This paper primarily describes the pre-flight testing conducted at the University of Toronto, Instrument Characterization Facility (ICF) and will also very briefly describe testing, post integration to the spacecraft at the Lockheed Martin, Valley Force integration and test facility and at the Vandenburg launch site.

The calibration of the MOPITT instrument

The MOPITT (Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere) instrument aboard the Terra Spacecraft was launched on Dec. 18, 1999 and has operated successfully since then. Instrument radiances are calculated from a total of 8 channels, which are combined in a retrieval scheme to measure the carbon monoxide (CO) profile and methane (CH/sub 4/) column in the troposphere. The instrument gain and offset, which are the key parameters to utilize the instrument measurements and to evaluate performance, are determined through an in-flight 2-point calibration scheme. Fluctuations and trends in the gain and offset on various time scales can be understood in terms of the instrument design, its performance, and the thermal environment. Some techniques for optimizing the noise levels as well as alternative methods of data processing, such as are required to cope with instrument anomalies, will be discussed.

MOPITT detection of carbon monoxide emitted from biomass burning: a case study

The EOS Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) is the first free-flying instrument for global measurement of carbon monoxide (CO) in the atmosphere from space. Because biomass burning is one of the major sources of CO to the atmosphere, the capacity of MOPITT to detect CO released from biomass burning is important and is the subject of this investigation. A study area with a series of fire events in the year 2000 in the northwest United States is selected. Fire data, detected with Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) from the satellite, were acquired and processed to spatially and temporally match the CO data. It is found that the increase of CO in the atmosphere is closely related to burning area and density in the study area. It appears that MOPITT can detect the CO increase due to biomass burning in a forested area when the fire size is over 40 km/sup 2/, i.e. 8% of a MOPITT pixel.