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Validation of ACE-FTS v2.2 methane profiles from the upper troposphere to lower mesosphere
1Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), Brussels, Belgium
2Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
3National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Tokyo, Japan
4IMK-ASF, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe and University Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany
5Laboratoire d'Optique Atmosphérique, Université des sciences et technologies de Lille, Lille, France
6Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement, CNRS – Université d'Orléans, Orléans, France
7National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO, USA
8Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique, Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium
9School of Chemistry, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
10Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
11Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
12Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
13National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Lauder, New-Zealand
14Department of Chemistry, University of York, Heslington, York, UK
15New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM, USA
16Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
Abstract. The ACE-FTS (Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment – Fourier Transform Spectrometer) solar occultation instrument that was launched onboard the Canadian SCISAT-1 satellite in August 2003 is measuring vertical profiles from the upper troposphere to the lower mesosphere for a large number of atmospheric constituents. Methane is one of the key species. The version v2.2 data of the ACE-FTS CH4 data have been compared to correlative satellite, balloon-borne and ground-based Fourier transform infrared remote sensing data to assess their quality. The comparison results indicate that the accuracy of the data is within 10% in the upper troposphere – lower stratosphere, and within 25% in the middle and higher stratosphere up to the lower mesosphere (<60 km). The observed differences are generally consistent with reported systematic uncertainties. ACE-FTS is also shown to reproduce the variability of methane in the stratosphere and lower mesosphere.
Discussion Paper (PDF, 1189 KB) Interactive Discussion (Closed, 5 Comments) Final Revised Paper (ACP)
Citation: De Mazière, M., Vigouroux, C., Bernath, P. F., Baron, P., Blumenstock, T., Boone, C., Brogniez, C., Catoire, V., Coffey, M., Duchatelet, P., Griffith, D., Hannigan, J., Kasai, Y., Kramer, I., Jones, N., Mahieu, E., Manney, G. L., Piccolo, C., Randall, C., Robert, C., Senten, C., Strong, K., Taylor, J., Tétard, C., Walker, K. A., and Wood, S.: Validation of ACE-FTS v2.2 methane profiles from the upper troposphere to lower mesosphere, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 7, 17975-18014, 2007. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager
