The Potential of the Geostationary Carbon Cycle Observatory (GeoCarb) to Provide Multi-scale Constraints on the Carbon Cycle in the Americas

Abstract

The second NASA Earth Venture Mission, Geostationary Carbon Cycle Observatory (GeoCarb), will provide measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2), methane (CH 4), carbon monoxide (CO), and solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) from Geostationary Orbit (GEO). The GeoCarb mission will deliver daily maps of column concentrations of CO 2 , CH 4 , and CO over the observed landmasses in the Americas at a spatial resolution of roughly 10 × 10 km. Persistent measurements of CO 2 , CH 4 , CO, and SIF will contribute significantly to resolving carbon emissions and illuminating biotic processes at urban to continental scales, which will allow the improvement of modeled biogeochemical processes in Earth System Models as well as monitor the response of the biosphere to disturbance. This is essential to improve understanding of the Carbon-Climate connection. In this paper, we introduce the instrument and the GeoCarb Mission, and we demonstrate the potential scientific contribution of the mission through a series of CO 2 and CH 4 simulation experiments. We find that GeoCarb will be able to constrain emissions at urban to continental spatial scales on weekly to annual time scales. The GeoCarb mission particularly builds upon the Orbiting Carbon Obserevatory-2 (OCO-2), which is flying in Low Earth Orbit.

Constraining Fossil Fuel CO2 Emissions From Urban Area Using OCO‐2 Observations of Total Column CO2

“…For Riyadh, Cairo, and LA, the ratios between emission at about the satellite overpassing time against the monthly average value are about 1.195, 1.127, and 1.288, corresponding to biases of about +19.5%, +12.7%, and +28.8% by only sampling in daytime compared to the monthly total emissions. More space observation missions including the Geostationary Carbon Cycle Observatory (GeoCarb) (Moore et al, 2018), OCO‐3 (Eldering, Wennberg, et al, 2017), and MicroCARB (https://microcarb.cnes.fr/en/MICROCARB/GP_mission.htm) will further enhance the uniform sampling over urban areas.…”

Space‐Based Observations for Understanding Changes in the Arctic‐Boreal Zone

“…Observations of atmospheric composition focused on air quality are now moving from only LEO missions to include an internationally coordinated GEO component to the constellation that will be in place in the early 2020s (CEOS‐ACC, ). A coordinated GEO component to a constellation of greenhouse gas missions from multiple nations may soon materialize (Crisp et al, ), beginning with NASA's planned Geostationary Carbon Cycle Observatory (GeoCARB; Moore et al, ). For both air quality and greenhouse gases, the synergy of a LEO‐GEO constellation is highly desirable, but results in a gap in continuous observations at high latitudes over the ABZ.…”

The Atmospheric Imaging Mission for Northern Regions: AIM-North

“…This virtual constellation will consist of satellites from multiple countries coordinated by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) Atmospheric Composition Virtual Constellation (AC-VC) group (CEOS-ACC 2011). A coordinated constellation architecture is also emerging for GHGs , with many existing and planned LEO missions, NASA's GeoCarb as the first GEO GHG mission to launch around 2022 (Moore et al 2018) and missions such as the Geostationary Emission Explorer for Europe (G3E/ARRHENIUS) (Butz et al 2015) considered by other space agencies. A coordinated GHG constellation would enable major advances in carbon cycle monitoring, including both natural and anthropogenic sources, in support of the UNFCCC Paris Agreement.…”

“…ESA's SCIAMACHY (Buchwitz et al 2005), NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) (Crisp et al 2004) and ESA's Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) have demonstrated the capabilities of dispersive/grating spectrometers for measuring CO 2 , CH 4 , CO and SIF from LEO and NASA's GeoCarb will use a grating spectrometer to observe these species from GEO (Moore et al 2018). A grating spectrometer is also a possibility for AIM-North and in fact, our dispersive band selection and spectral sampling in Table 4 is based directly on plans for GeoCarb (O'Brien et al 2016).…”