Space Based Measurements of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide with the NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory
David
Crisp, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, david.crisp@jpl.nasa.gov
(Presenting)
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) is the first NASA satellite designed to measure atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) with the precision and sampling needed to identify and quantify regional scale CO2 sources and sinks. The Observatory carries a single instrument that uses high resolution grating spectrometers to measure reflected sunlight in the CO2 bands at 1.61 and 2.06 microns and in the molecular oxygen (O2) A-band at 0.765 microns. OCO is on schedule for a December 15, 2008 launch readiness date. It is expected to begin routinely returning CO2 and O2 spectra about 45 days after launch. Within six months of that date, calibrated, geolocated spectral radiances will start to be archived in the JPL Distributed Active Archive Center. An additional 3 months will be needed to retrieve, validate, and begin archiving estimates of the column-averaged CO2 dry air mole fraction, XCO2. |