HR: 11:00h
AN: A12D-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Global Observations of Mid-Tropospheric Carbon Dioxide Using the AIRS Sounder on EOS-AQUA
AU: * Strow, L L
EM: strow@umbc.edu
AF: Physics Dept. and JCET University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 United States
AU: Hannon, S
EM: hannon@umbc.edu
AF: Physics Dept. and JCET University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 United States
AB: The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) has been operating continuously for more than 3 years, providing a large record of hyperspectral radiances throughout the mid-infrared. We have generated a subset of all AIRS radiances for clear, ocean fields-of-view for the purposes of validation of both the sensor and the radiative transfer algorithm used for temperature and humidity retrievals. Radiance bias comparisons between observed radiances, and those computed from both (1) radiosondes launched coincident with AIRS, and (2) ECMWF analysis/forecast fields exhibit variations with both latitude and time due to variable carbon dioxide. We present here zonally-averaged (ocean only) retrievals of mid-tropospheric carbon dioxide derived from the biases between AIRS observations and radiances computed from ECMWF. The time and latitude dependence of monthly averages of the retrieved zonal carbon dioxide amounts exhibit behavior close to the NOAA/CMDL global carbon dioxide climatologies. Long-term satellite observations of global carbon dioxide with operational hyperspectral sounders should be feasible and provide an important contribution to our understanding of carbon dioxide emissions.
DE: 0322 Constituent sources and sinks
DE: 0360 Radiation: transmission and scattering
DE: 0365 Troposphere: composition and chemistry
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005