HR: 16:20h
AN: A14C-02 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO): Regional scale carbon sink characterization from space-based XCO2 data
AU: * Miller, C E
EM: charles.e.miller@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109-8099 United States
AB: The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) mission, planned for launch in 2008, will remotely sense atmospheric CO₂ from space with the precision, temporal and spatial resolution, and coverage needed to quantify CO₂ sources and sinks on regional spatial scales and characterize their variability on seasonal to interannual time scales. Precision requirements have been determined for the OCO column-averaged CO₂ dry air mole fraction (X_CO2) data products. These requirements result from an assessment of the amplitude and spatial gradients in XCO2, the relationship between X_CO2 precision and surface CO₂ flux uncertainties calculated from inversions of the X_CO2 data, and the effects of X_CO2 biases on CO₂ flux inversions. Regional scale CO₂ surface flux uncertainties scale almost linearly with the X_CO2data precision for X_CO2 precisions ranging from 1 to 5 ppm (0.3 to 1.4 %). Space-based X_CO2 data with precisions of 1 to 2 ppm (0.3 to 0.5%) on regional scales will dramatically improve our understanding elusive carbon cycle phenomena such as the Northern Hemisphere terrestrial carbon sink as well as the response of the land biosphere and oceans to seasonal and interannual climate variability.
UR: http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov
DE: 0315 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0426, 1610)
DE: 0365 Troposphere: composition and chemistry
DE: 0394 Instruments and techniques
DE: 0428 Carbon cycling (4806)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005