Towards validation of SCIAMACHY lunar occultation NO2 vertical profiles

Vertical profiles of stratospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) have been retrieved from moderate resolution lunar occultation transmission spectra measured by Scanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) on board the European Environmental Satellite (ENVISAT). These measurements were taken over the high southern latitude of 50°–90° during the period of 2003–2005. To assess the accuracy of the retrieved NO₂ profiles, the SCIAMACHY nighttime NO₂ profiles were compared with NO₂ profiles retrieved from sunrise solar occultation spectra measured by the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) and the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiments II (SAGE II) using a photochemical correction model. The validation results show good agreement of SCIAMACHY lunar occultation NO₂ with scaled HALOE and SAGE II profiles. The relative mean differences (rmd) with scaled HALOE profiles are within −13% to +5% and standard deviations (rms) of the relative differences are within 3–19% between 25 and 38 km. The rmd and rms with scaled SAGE II NO₂ profiles are in the range of −9 to +7 and 10–17% respectively between 22 and 39 km.     

SCIAMACHY limb measurements of NO2, BrO and OClO. Retrieval of vertical profiles: Algorithm,first results,sensitivity and comparison studies

The Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) measures scattered sun light also in limb viewing mode (i.e. tangential to Earth’s surface and its atmosphere), which allows determining vertical profiles of atmospheric trace gases. First results on the retrieval of NO₂, BrO and OClO profiles from the SCIAMACHY Limb measurements are presented and compared to independent satellite and balloon borne observations.     

Boundary layer aerosol retrieval from thermal infrared nadir sounding – Preliminary results

A non-empirical algorithm is presented to retrieve the optical depth in the 750–1250 cm⁻¹ spectral range, of aerosol located in the boundary layer over the ocean, from nadir high-resolution radiance spectra in the thermal infrared. The algorithm is based on a line-by-line radiative transfer forward model and used the Optimal Estimation Method for the retrieval. Its performance strongly depends on the quality of the a priori temperature and H₂O atmospheric profiles. To demonstrate the relevance of the algorithm, distributions of maritime aerosol parameters have been retrieved from IMG/ADEOS data for December 1996, using the algorithm with the LBLRTM radiative transfer code, and ERA40 (ECMWF) a priori atmospheric profiles and surface conditions.     

First results of ozone profiles between 35 and 65 km retrieved from SCIAMACHY limb spectra and observations of ozone depletion during the solar proton events in October/November 2003

Ozone density profiles between 35 and 65 km altitude are derived from scattered sunlight limb radiance spectra measured by the SCIAMACHY instrument on the Envisat satellite. The method is based on the inversion of normalized limb radiance profiles in the Hartley absorption bands of ozone at selected wavelengths between 250 and 310 nm. It employs a non-linear Newtonian iteration version of Optimal Estimation (OE) coupled with the radiative transfer model SCIARAYS. The limb scatter technique combined with a classical OE retrieval in the short-wave UV-B and long-wave UV-C delivers reliable results as shown by a first comparison with MIPAS V4.61 profiles yielding agreement within 10% between 38 and 55 km. An overview of the methodology and an initial error analysis are presented. Furthermore the effect of the solar proton storm between 28 October and 6 November 2003 on the ozone concentration profiles is shown. They indicate large depletion of ozone of about 60% at 50 km in the Northern hemisphere, a weaker depletion in the Southern hemisphere and a dependence of the depletion on the Earth’s magnetic field.     

Comparison of global chlorophyll concentrations using MODIS data

Chlorophyll concentrations derived from satellite borne ocean color sensors data provide an idea of the distribution of phytoplanktons across the oceans which help us in understanding the spatial and temporal dynamics of phytoplanktons. The changes in the patterns of distribution and abundance of the planktons have significant impact on the entire ecosystem and play a key role in the global carbon cycle. In this paper, we have analyzed annual and seasonal chlorophyll concentrations retrieved from MODIS data for the periods March 2000–October 2003, which reveal the spatial and seasonal distribution of chlorophyll concentrations across the global oceans. Chlorophyll concentrations anomaly indicate that chlorophyll concentrations in almost all ocean regions responded similarly.     

Temperature comparison between CHAMP radio occultation and TIMED/SABER measurements in the lower stratosphere

Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver on the CHAllenging Mini-satellite Payload (CHAMP) and the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument, one of four on board the TIMED satellite, provide middle atmosphere temperature profiles by Radio Occultation (RO) and limb viewing infrared emission measurements, respectively. These temperature profiles retrieved by two different techniques in the stratosphere are compared with each other using more than 1300 correlative profiles in March, September and December 2005. The over-all mean differences averaged over 15 and 35 km are approximately −2 K and standard deviation is less than 3 K. Below 20 km of altitude, relatively small mean temperature differences ∼1 K are observed in wide latitudinal range except for June (during the SABER nighttime observation). In the middle to low latitudes, between 30°S and 30°N, the temperature difference increases with height from ∼0–1 K at 15 km, to ∼−4 K at 35 km of altitude. Large temperature differences about −4 to −6 K are observed between 60°S and 30°N and 31–35 km of altitude for all months and between 0° and 30°N below 16 km during June (nighttime).     

Spatial and temporal monitoring of drought conditions using the satellite rainfall estimates and remote sensing optical and thermal measurements

Drought is an important natural disaster that causes devastating impacts on the ecosystem, livestock, environment, and society. So far, various remote-sensing methods have been developed to estimate drought conditions, each of which has advantages and restrictions. This study aims to monitor the real-time drought indices at the field scales via the integration of various earth observations. Our proposed method consists of two steps. In the first step, the relationships between long-term standardized precipitation indices (SPI) derived from PERSIANN-CDR rainfall data and two drought-dependent parameters derived from MODIS products, including normalized NDVI and soil-air temperature gradient, are obtained at the spatial resolution of PERSIANN-CDR grid (approximately 25 km). As the next step, the corresponding relationships are applied to estimate the drought index maps at the spatial resolution of MODIS products (1 km). Numerous analyses are carried out to evaluate the proposed method. The results revealed that, from various drought indices, including SPIs of different timescales (1, 3, 6, and 12-months), SPI-3 and SPI-6 are more appropriate to the proposed method in terms of correlation with temperature and vegetation parameters. The findings also demonstrate the competency of the proposed method in estimating SPI indices with average RMSE 0.67 and the average correlation coefficient of 0.74.     

Rainfall retrieval over Indian land and oceanic regions from SSM/I microwave data

Present study focuses on the estimation of rainfall over Indian land and oceanic regions from the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) on the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F-13. Based on the measurements at 19.35, 22.235 and 85.5 GHz channels of SSM/I Satellite, scattering index (SI) has been developed for the Indian land and oceanic regions separately. These scattering indices were co-located against rainfall from Precipitation Radar (PR) onboard Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) to develop a new regional relationship between the SI and the rain rate for the Indian land and oceanic regions. A non-linear fit between the rain rate and the SI is established for rain measurement. In order to have confidence in our method, we have also estimated rainfall using the global rainfall and scattering index relationship developed by Ferraro and Marks [Ferraro, R.R., Marks, G.F. The development of SSM/I rain rate retrieval algorithms using ground based radar measurements. J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol. 12, 755–770, 1995]. The validation with the rain-gauge shows that the present scheme is able to retrieve rainfall with better accuracy than that of Ferraro and Marks (1995). Further intercomparison with TRMM-2A12 and validation with rain-gauges rainfall showed that the present algorithm is able to retrieve the rainfall with reasonably good accuracy.     

A review of global satellite-derived snow products

Snow cover over the Northern Hemisphere plays a crucial role in the Earth’s hydrology and surface energy balance, and modulates feedbacks that control variations of global climate. While many of these variations are associated with exchanges of energy and mass between the land surface and the atmosphere, other expected changes are likely to propagate downstream and affect oceanic processes in coastal zones. For example, a large component of the freshwater flux into the Arctic Ocean comes from snow melt. The timing and magnitude of this flux affects biological and thermodynamic processes in the Arctic Ocean, and potentially across the globe through their impact on North Atlantic Deep Water formation.     

Relationships between soil properties of the abandoned fields and spectral data derived from the advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer (ASTER)

The structural transformation of Polish agriculture after 1989 has been leading to significant changes in land use. As a result a large part of formerly ploughed fields lies abandoned and they occur across considerable variability in soil typological units. Accurate information about soil conditions within the abandoned fields facilitates proper management in the new socio-economic situation. Such information can be collected using satellite images since the structure and condition of the vegetation growing on the abandoned fields reflects soil properties. The objective of this study is to evaluate the relationships between physical and chemical attributes of soil within the abandoned fields and spectral reflectance patterns recorded by ASTER sensors onboard Terra Satellite. Soil samples were collected at five abandoned fields which have not been ploughed since 2000 and analyzed in the laboratory to determine their physical and chemical properties. Nine ASTER nearly cloud-free pictures were used for this study in order to derive the remote-sensing attributes of the abandoned fields. In order to evaluate the relationships between soil fertility and remotely sensed data, partial least-squares (PLS) and a multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis between these two datasets were carried out. In the regression analysis, only soil TEB (total exchangeable bases) stock in the whole profile displayed the highest correlation with remotely sensed data acquired in April and May and the best predictors were NDVI and LSWI vegetation indices.     

Digisonde observations of TIDs with frequency and angular sounding technique

A technique for studying ionospheric wavelike phenomena, primarily AGW/TID events, is developed based on the solution of the problem of radio wave propagation in ionospheric plasma disturbed by wavelike processes. A perfectly reflecting surface model is used for representing TIDs propagating at ionospheric heights. This technique is a generalization of the Frequency-and-Angular Sounding (FAS) method developed earlier for oblique TID diagnostics using transmitters of opportunity. Trial measurements were made in November 2003 with two DPS-4 systems at Millstone Hill Observatory, providing experimental validation of the developed method by comparing the results of disturbance diagnostics to those simultaneously obtained with the original (oblique) FAS method. The TID parameters recovered during the November 2003 campaign suggest that the observed disturbances predominately propagated equatorward which likely indicates their sources to be in the auroral region. The equatorward propagating AGW/TIDs are typical for disturbed geomagnetic conditions which were observed during the campaign. Implementation of the generalized FAS technique in the DPS sounder allowed development of a dedicated data acquisition system for ionospheric disturbance diagnostics. Routine measurements with the developed technique using the existing world-wide network of Digisondes (GIRO) will make it possible to conduct large-scale studies of the AGW/TID phenomena.     

Spatiotemporal variations in litter mass and their relationships with climate in temperate grassland: A case study from Xilingol grassland,Inner Mongolia (China)

Clarifying spatiotemporal variations of litter mass and their relationships with climate factors will advance our understanding of ecosystem structure and functioning in grasslands. Our objective is to investigate the spatiotemporal variations of litter mass in the growing season and their relationships with precipitation and temperature in the Xilingol grassland using MOD09A1 data. With widely used STI (simple tillage index), we firstly estimated the litter mass of Xilingol grassland in the growing season from 2000 to 2014. Then we investigated the variations of litter mass in the growing season at regional and site scales. We further explored the spatiotemporal relationships between litter mass and precipitation and temperature at both scales. The litter mass increased with increasing mean annual precipitation and decreasing mean annual temperature at regional scale. The variations of litter mass at given sites followed quadratic function curves in the growing season, and litter mass generally attained maximums between August 1 and September 1. Positive spatial relationship was observed between litter mass variations and precipitation, and negative spatial relationship was found between litter mass variations and temperature in the growing season. There was no significant relationship between inter-annual variations of litter mass and precipitation and temperature at given sites. Results illustrate that precipitation and temperature are important drivers in shaping ecosystem functioning as reflected in litter mass at regional scale in the Xilingol grassland. Our findings also suggest the action of distinct mechanism in controlling litter mass variations at regional and sites scales.     

Statistical comparison of night-time NO2 observations in 2003–2006 from GOMOS and MIPAS instruments

GOMOS (Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars) and MIPAS (Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding) are remote sensing instruments on board the European Space Agency’s Envisat satellite. GOMOS and MIPAS have been designed for observations of stratospheric and mesospheric constituents, including ozone and nitrogen dioxide. Both instruments have a good global coverage of observations and can provide data also from the polar regions. In this paper, we compare night-time NO₂ data from GOMOS with those from MIPAS. We present statistics of selected sets of data spanning from the year 2003 to 2006. The results for low-to-mid latitudes show that the two instruments are in a good agreement in the middle stratosphere, the differences being typically less than 5%. In the upper stratosphere, GOMOS observations generally show 15% higher values than those from MIPAS. The bias is in virtually all cases smaller than the combined systematic error of the measurements, giving great confidence in the GOMOS and MIPAS data quality. The result for high mesospheric NO₂ mixing ratios observed in the polar regions during winter times indicate a good agreement between GOMOS and MIPAS. In the mesosphere, the difference is less than 35% and smaller than the systematic error. Due to the high mesospheric signal, MIPAS sensitivity decreases in the stratosphere which results in larger differences between the two instruments.     

Bayesian approach to retrieval of vertical ozone profile from radiometry data

A technique for retrieving vertical distributions (profiles) of atmospheric gas constituents from data of passive remote sensing of the atmosphere is proposed. The goal of the technique based on the statistical (Bayesian) approach to solution of inverse problems is construction of probability distribution for a sought quantity throughout the interval of the studied heights. It is assumed that initial data contain measurement noise, and a priori information about properties of the profile is used. It is proposed to approximate the sought profile by a function in the form of an artificial neural network. This approximation allows optimal inclusion of a priori information into retrieval procedure, thus ensuring the most effective regularization of the problem. Efficiency of the proposed technique is demonstrated on an example of retrieval of vertical ozone profile from data of ground-based sounding of the atmosphere in the millimeter wavelength range. Results of profile retrieval from model data and from spectra of radiation temperature of the atmosphere measured in the Apatity (67° N, 33° E) in the winter of 2002–2003 are presented.     

Clouds and Earth Radiant Energy System (CERES), a review: Past,present and future

The Clouds and Earth Radiant Energy System (CERES) project’s objectives are to measure the reflected solar radiance (shortwave) and Earth-emitted (longwave) radiances and from these measurements to compute the shortwave and longwave radiation fluxes at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) and the surface and radiation divergence within the atmosphere. The fluxes at TOA are to be retrieved to an accuracy of 2%. Improved bidirectional reflectance distribution functions (BRDFs) have been developed to compute the fluxes at TOA from the measured radiances with errors reduced from ERBE by a factor of two or more. Instruments aboard the Terra and Aqua spacecraft provide sampling at four local times. In order to further reduce temporal sampling errors, data are used from the geostationary meteorological satellites to account for changes of scenes between observations by the CERES radiometers.     

GNSS reflectometry and remote sensing: New objectives and results

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) has been a very powerful and important contributor to all scientific questions related to precise positioning on Earth’s surface, particularly as a mature technique in geodesy and geosciences. With the development of GNSS as a satellite microwave (L-band) technique, more and wider applications and new potentials are explored and utilized. The versatile and available GNSS signals can image the Earth’s surface environments as a new, highly precise, continuous, all-weather and near-real-time remote sensing tool. The refracted signals from GNSS radio occultation satellites together with ground GNSS observations can provide the high-resolution tropospheric water vapor, temperature and pressure, tropopause parameters and ionospheric total electron content (TEC) and electron density profile as well. The GNSS reflected signals from the ocean and land surface could determine the ocean height, wind speed and wind direction of ocean surface, soil moisture, ice and snow thickness. In this paper, GNSS remote sensing applications in the atmosphere, oceans, land and hydrology are presented as well as new objectives and results discussed.     

The possibilities of polar meteorology,environmental remote sensing,communications and space weather applications from Artificial Lagrange Orbit

The ability to observe meteorological events in the polar regions of the Earth from satellite celebrated an anniversary, with the launch of TIROS-I in a pseudo-polar orbit on 1 April 1960. Yet, after 50 years, polar orbiting satellites are still the best view of the polar regions of the Earth. The luxuries of geostationary satellite orbit including rapid scan operations, feature tracking, and atmospheric motion vectors (or cloud drift winds), are enjoyed only by the middle and tropical latitudes or perhaps only cover the deep polar regions in the case of satellite derived winds from polar orbit. The prospect of a solar sailing satellite system in an Artificial Lagrange Orbit (ALO, also known as “pole sitters”) offers the opportunity for polar environmental remote sensing, communications, forecasting and space weather monitoring. While there are other orbital possibilities to achieve this goal, an ALO satellite system offers one of the best analogs to the geostationary satellite system for routine polar latitude observations.     

Nighttime cloud properties retrieval using MODIS and artificial neural networks

In this work a methodology for inferring water cloud macro and microphysical properties from nighttime MODIS imagery is developed. This method is based on the inversion of a theoretical radiative transfer model that simulates the radiances detected in each of the sensor infrared bands. To accomplish this inversion, an operational technique based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) is proposed, whose main characteristic is the ability to retrieve cloud properties much faster than conventional methods. Furthermore, a detailed study of input data is performed to avoid different sources of errors that appear in several MODIS infrared channels. Finally, results of applying the proposed method are compared with in-situ measurements carried out during the DYCOMS-II field experiment.     

Validation of the operational IASI level 2 processor using AIRS and ECMWF data

The algorithms being implemented in EUMETSAT’s IASI Level 2 Product Processing Facility are validated with real case situations using AIRS data and comparing the retrieved atmospheric states with ECMWF analyses. The tests have been performed for clear-sky ocean scenes during daytime.

The Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) retrievals show very good performance, with retrieved atmospheric states standard deviations between 1 and 2 K in temperature and 10% and 20% in relative humidity when compared with ECMWF analysis in the troposphere. The EOF retrievals show relatively smooth profiles.

Results from an iterative retrieval show a standard deviation between 2 and 3 K in temperature and 10% and 30% in relative humidity when compared with ECMWF analyses in the troposphere. They tend to show meteorologically reasonable discontinuities in both temperature and relative humidity. This seems to be the reason why they do not compare as well with ECMWF analyses as the EOF retrievals do. Whether they are closer to reality or not will have to be tested with co-located radiosondes or similar more accurate data, which generally do not exhibit such smooth vertical profiles as ECMWF analyses do.