ACPD Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions ACPD 1680-7375 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acpd-9-1727-2009 A two-step scheme for high-resolution regional atmospheric trace gas inversions based on independent models Rödenbeck C. 1 Gerbig C. 1 Trusilova K. 1 Heimann M. 1 Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, P.O. Box 100164, 07701 Jena, Germany 19 01 2009 9 1 1727 1756 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/1727/2009/acpd-9-1727-2009.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/1727/2009/acpd-9-1727-2009.pdf

Mixing ratio measurements of atmospheric tracers like CO<sub>2</sub> can be used to estimate regional surface-air tracer fluxes using inverse methods, involving a numerical transport model. Currently available transport models are either global but rather coarse, or more accurate but only over a limited spatial and temporal domain. To obtain higher-resolution flux estimates within a region of interest, existing studies use zoomed or coupled models. The two-step scheme developed here uses global and regional models sequentially in separate inversion steps, coupled only via the data vector. This provides a nested atmospheric inversion scheme without the necessity of a direct coupled model implementation. For example, the scheme allows an easy nesting of Lagrangian models with their potential of very high resolution into global inversions.

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