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Lidar Measurements of Atmospheric CO2 From Regional to Global ScalesAtmospheric CO2 is a critical forcing for the Earth's climate and the knowledge on its distributions and variations influences predictions of the Earth's future climate. Large uncertainties in the predictions persist due to limited observations. This study uses the airborne Intensity-Modulated Continuous-Wave (IMCW) lidar developed at NASA Langley Research Center to measure regional atmospheric CO2 spatio-temporal variations. Further lidar development and demonstration will provide the capability of global atmospheric CO2 estimations from space, which will significantly advances our knowledge on atmospheric CO2 and reduce the uncertainties in the predictions of future climate. In this presentation, atmospheric CO2 column measurements from airborne flight campaigns and lidar system simulations for space missions will be discussed. A measurement precision of approx.0.3 ppmv for a 10-s average over desert and vegetated surfaces has been achieved. Data analysis also shows that airborne lidar CO2 column measurements over these surfaces agree well with in-situ measurements. Even when thin cirrus clouds present, consistent CO2 column measurements between clear and thin cirrus cloudy skies are obtained. Airborne flight campaigns have demonstrated that precise atmospheric column CO2 values can be measured from current IM-CW lidar systems, which will lead to use this airborne technique in monitoring CO2 sinks and sources in regional and continental scales as proposed by the NASA Atmospheric Carbon and Transport â€" America project. Furthermore, analyses of space CO2 measurements shows that applying the current IM-CW lidar technology and approach to space, the CO2 science goals of space missions will be achieved, and uncertainties in CO2 distributions and variations will be reduced.
Document ID
20160006500
Acquisition Source
Langley Research Center
Document Type
Presentation
Authors
Lin, Bing (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Harrison, F. Wallace (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Nehrir, Amin (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Browell, Edward (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Dobler, Jeremy (Exelis, Inc. Ft. Wayne, IN, United States)
Campbell, Joel (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Meadows, Byron (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Obland, Michael (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Ismail, Syed (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Kooi, Susan (Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Hampton, VA, United States)
Fan, Tai-Fang (Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Hampton, VA, United States)
Date Acquired
May 23, 2016
Publication Date
May 27, 2015
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Report/Patent Number
NF1676L-21542
Meeting Information
Meeting: Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2015
Location: Chiba-City, Tokyo
Country: Japan
Start Date: May 24, 2015
End Date: May 28, 2015
Sponsors: Japan Geoscience Union
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

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