Validation of ACE-FTS v2.2 methane profiles from the upper troposphere to lower mesosphere

M. de Mazière (1) , C. Vigouroux (1) , P. F. Bernath (2, 3) , P. Baron (4) , T. Blumenstock (5) , C. Boone (2) , C. Brogniez (6) , Valéry Catoire (7) , M. Coffey (8) , P. Duchatelet (9) , D. Griffith (10) , J. Hannigan (8) , Y. Kasai (4) , I. Kramer (5) , N. Jones (10) , E. Mahieu (9) , G. L. Manney (11, 12) , C. Piccolo (13) , C. Randall (14, 15) , Cédric Robert Robert (7) , C. Senten (1) , K. Strong (16) , James Taylor (16) , C. Tétard (6) , K. A. Walker (2, 16) , S. Wood (17)

1 BIRA-IASB - Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy / Institut d'Aéronomie Spatiale de Belgique
2 Department of Chemistry [Waterloo]
3 Department of Chemistry [York, UK]
4 NICT - National Institute of Information and Communications Technology [Tokyo]
5 IMK-ASF - Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung - Atmosphärische Spurengase und Fernerkundung
6 LOA - Laboratoire d’Optique Atmosphérique - UMR 8518
7 LPCE - Laboratoire de physique et chimie de l'environnement
8 NCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research [Boulder]
9 Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique [Liège]
10 School of Chemistry
11 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
12 NMT - New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology [New Mexico Tech]
13 AOPP - Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics [Oxford]
14 LASP - Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics [Boulder]
15 ATOC - Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences [Boulder]
16 Department of Physics [Toronto]
17 NIWA - National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research [Wellington]

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.

Domaines: Océan, Atmosphère

M. de Mazière, C. Vigouroux, P. F. Bernath, P. Baron, T. Blumenstock, et al.. Validation of ACE-FTS v2.2 methane profiles from the upper troposphere to lower mesosphere. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, 2007, 7 (6), pp.17975-18014. ⟨hal-00328249⟩