Global consistency check of AIRS and IASI total CO₂ column concentrations using WDCGG ground-based measurements

Abstract

This article describes a global consistency check of CO₂ satellite retrieval products from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) using statistical analysis and data from the World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG). We use the correlation coefficient (r), relative difference (RD), root mean square errors (RMSE), and mean bias error (MBE) as evaluation indicators for this study. Statistical results show that a linear positive correlation between AIRS/IASI and WDCGG data occurs for most regions around the world. Temporal and spatial variations of these statistical quantities reflect obvious differences between satellite-derived and ground-based data based on geographic position, especially for stations near areas of intense human activities in the Northern Hemisphere. It is noteworthy that there appears to be a very weak correlation between AIRS/IASI data and ten ground-based observation stations in Europe, Asia, and North America. These results indicate that retrieval products from the two satellite-based instruments studied should be used with great caution.

Keywords

CO₂ / consistency check / AIRS / IASI / WDCGG

References

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2010CB951603) and the Major Program of National Social Science Foundation of China (No.13&ZD161). We thank Prof. Jietai Mao of the Department of Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences, Peking University, China for providing expert advice and assistance. We also thank the WDCGG for providing the CO2 data. Many thanks to NASA for providing AIRS CO2 data and NOAA for providing IASI CO2 data.

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2016 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg