Comparisons of aircraft measurements of greenhouse gases with GOSAT data

Vertical profiles of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and ozone were measured using the Alpha Jet research aircraft as part of the Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment (AJAX). Airborne instruments measuring GHGs (Picarro Inc. G2301-m) and ozone (2B Technologies Inc., model 205) are installed in a wing pod and operated from NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, CA (37.415°N, 120.050°W). The in situ measurement instruments mounted on the aircraft yield precise and accurate vertical profiles of atmospheric GHGs and ozone. The purpose of this work is to validate GOSAT data and estimate from Alpha Jet measurements the contribution of GHGs from urban areas. We show the result of comparison of GOSAT and Alpha Jet measurements over Railroad Valley, NV and urban areas in Northern California. The Alpha Jet aircraft performs a measurement over the Railroad Valley (RRV) desert playa, Nevada (38.497°N, 115.691°W, 1437m above mean sea level) once a month for the comparison with Greenhouse gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) measurements from 2011. The GOSAT was developed to measure concentrations of CO2 and CH4 from space and has been in operation from 2009. The instruments onboard GOSAT are the Thermal And Near-infrared Sensor for carbon Observation Fourier Transform Spectrometer (TANSO-FTS) and the TANSO Cloud and Aerosol Imager (TANSO-CAI) (Kuze et al., 2009). The RRV playa is a flat, high altitude desert site and an area where local sources and sinks of carbon-species are expected to be minimal. The playa has virtually no vegetation and an overall size of 15 km× 15 km, which includes GOSAT's field of view. Reference Akihiko Kuze, Hiroshi Suto, Masakatsu Nakajima, and Takashi Hamazaki. Thermal and near infrared sensor for carbon observation Fourier-transform spectrometer on the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite for greenhouse gases monitoring. App. Opt., 48, 6716-6733, 2009.