Improved Tropospheric Carbon Monoxide Profiles Using AIRS and TES Measurements

Atmospheric CO concentrations are simultaneously measured by EOS A-train satellite sensors, which include AIRS on Aqua, TES and MLS on Aura. Based on the heritage of the A-train system, the combined datasets from these sensors will provide the best available three-dimensional trace gas information that incorporates the uniqueness of AIRS large spatial coverage, TES high vertical resolutions, and MLS measurements at the upper troposphere and stratosphere. This presentation introduces a new technique that combines TES CO profile measurements with AIRS retrievals by using them as a priori profiles, which reflect near real-time observations taken within only 15 minutes. The combined datasets in this fashion will extend AIRS CO observational sensitivity to the lower atmosphere, which is especially important for air quality studies. The portion of this study for non- coincident profiles will provide the opportunity to propagate TES CO vertical measurement sensitivity horizontally. For AIRS pixels that are located away from nadir objective analysis techniques will be used to populate the observations. Weightings for TES and MLS L2 products will be based on AIRS observed variances and the averaging kernels of TES and MLS. The collocated AIRS and TES datasets are combined and overlapped with DACOM in situ CO measurements from INTEX-B field campaign for validation.