No abstract

Under the Paris Agreement progress of emission reduction efforts is tracked on the basis of regular updates to national Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventories, referred to as bottom-up estimates. However, only top-down atmospheric measurements can provide observation-based evidence of emission trends. Today there is no internationally agreed, operational capacity to monitor anthropogenic GHG emission trends using atmospheric measurements to complement national bottom-up inventories. The European Commission (EC), the European Space Agency, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites and international experts, are joining forces to develop such an operational capacity for monitoring anthropogenic CO2 emissions as a new CO2 service under EC's Copernicus Programme. Design studies have been used to translate identified needs into defined requirements and functionalities of this anthropogenic CO2 emissions Monitoring and Verification Support (CO2MVS) capacity. It adopts a holistic view and includes components such as atmospheric space-borne and in-situ measurements, bottom-up CO2 emission maps, improved modeling of the carbon cycle, an operational data-assimilation system integrating top-down and bottom-up information, and a policy-relevant decision support tool. The CO2MVS capacity with operational capabilities by 2026, is expected to visualize regular updates of global CO2 emissions, likely at 0.05°x0.05°. This will complement the PA’s enhanced transparency framework, providing actionable information on anthropogenic CO2 emissions that are the main driver of climate change. This information will be available to all stakeholders, including governments and citizens, allowing them to reflect on trends and effectiveness of reduction measures. The new EC gave green light to pass the CO2MVS from exploratory to implementing phase.

Responding to plans of the European Commission for extending the observation capabilities of the Copernicus programme, the European Space Agency (ESA) has initiated Phase A industrial (technical feasibility) studies for several new space-borne Earth Observation missions. High priority is given to a constellation of LEO satellites in Sunsynchronous orbit with the purpose of observing anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions [European Commission, 2017]. The observing system shall acquire images of CO2 concentration in terms of dry air column-averaged mole fractions (XCO2), providing complete global land coverage at high spatial resolution (4 km 2 ) within five days. The demanding requirements call for a payload comprising a combination of multiple instruments, which perform simultaneous measurements. The XCO2 is inferred from reflectance measurements in the Near-Infrared (NIR) and Short-Wave Infrared spectral regions (SWIR). This requires at least three spatially co-registered push-broom imaging spectrometers, measuring spectral radiance and solar irradiance in the NIR (747-773 nm), SWIR-1 (1595-1675 nm) and SWIR-2 (1990SWIR-2 ( -2095 at moderate spectral resolving power (R~5000-7000). In addition, the observations for CO2 concentration will be complemented by Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) over the same area. The NO2 measurements in the visible region (400-500 nm) are expected to serve as a tracer for plumes of high CO2 concentration resulting from high temperature combustion, which will facilitate plume identification and mapping. The third component of the payload is a multiple-angle polarimeter (MAP), performing high-precision measurements of aerosol (and cloud) properties. Its measurements of polarized radiance under various observation angles are expected to reduce XCO2 bias error and significantly increase the yield of useful retrievals from the NIR and SWIR spectra. The complex observation architecture, involving multiple instruments and platforms, call for optimized observational requirements, driven by the primary goal of detecting and quantifying point-sources of greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, high single-sounding precision is essential for identifying plumes of elevated CO2 concentration from instantaneous image acquisitions without regional and temporal averaging. This translates into stringent requirements for Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), as well as spatial co-registration and spectral stability, which drive the instrument design. The presentation will introduce the different elements of the candidate Copernicus mission, in view of the ambitious mission goals. The payload components and observation requirements are addressed with special emphasis on the derivation of the SNR and spectral resolution requirements, which determine the instrument sizing.

The European Space Agency (ESA), in collaboration with the European Commission (EC) and EUMETSAT, is developing a space-borne observing system for quantification of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. Forming part of the EC's Copernicus programme, the CO 2 monitoring (CO2M) mission will be implemented as a constellation of identical satellites, to be operated over a period of at least 7 years and measuring CO 2 concentration in terms of column-averaged mole fraction (denoted as XCO 2 ). Each satellite will continuously image XCO 2 along the satellite track on the sun-illuminated part of the orbit, with a swath width of >250 km. Observations will be provided at a spatial resolution of 2 x 2 km 2 , with high precision (<0.7 ppm) and accuracy (bias <0.5 ppm). To this end, the payload comprises a suite of instruments addressing the various aspects of the challenging observation requirements: A push-broom imaging spectrometer will perform co-located measurements of top-of-atmosphere radiances in the Near Infrared (NIR) and Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) at high to moderate spectral resolution

No abstract