TCCON and NDACC XCO measurements: difference, discussion and application

Minqiang Zhou , Bavo Langerock (1) , Corinne Vigouroux (2) , Mahesh Kumar Sha (1) , Christian Hermans (3) , Jean-Marc Metzger (4) , Huilin Chen , Michel Ramonet (5, 6) , Rigel Kivi (7) , Pauli Heikkinen , Dan W Smale (8) , David Pollard (8) , Nicholas Jones (9) , Voltaire Velazco (10) , Omaira Garcìa (11) , Matthias Schneider (12) , Mathias Palm (13) , Thorsten Warneke (14) , Martine de Mazière (1)

1 BIRA-IASB - Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy / Institut d'Aéronomie Spatiale de Belgique
2 UMRS893 - Centre de Recherche Saint-Antoine
3 Laboratoire de Physiologie et de Génétique Moléculaire des Plantes
4 OSU-Réunion - Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de La Réunion
5 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
6 ICOS-RAMCES - ICOS-RAMCES
7 FMI - Finnish Meteorological Institute
8 NIWA - National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research [Lauder]
9 CAC - Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry [Wollongong]
10 University of Wollongong [Australia]
11 IARC - Izaña Atmospheric Research Center
12 IMK - Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research
13 Department of Physics [Bremen]
14 IUP - Institut für Umweltphysik [Bremen]

Column-averaged dry-air mole fraction of CO (X CO) measurements are obtained from two ground-based Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer networks: the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) and the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). In this study, the differences between the TCCON and NDACC X CO measurements are investigated and discussed based on six NDACC-TCCON sites using data over the period 2007-2017. A direct comparison shows that the NDACC X CO measurements are about 5.5 % larger than the TCCON data at Ny-Ålesund, Bremen, and Izaña (North-ern Hemisphere), and the absolute bias between the NDACC and TCCON data is within 2 % at Saint-Denis, Wollongong and Lauder (Southern Hemisphere). The hemispheric dependence of the bias is mainly attributed to their smoothing errors. The systematic smoothing error of the TCCON X CO data varies in the range between 0.2 % (Bremen) and 7.9 % (Lauder), and the random smoothing error varies in the range between 2.0 % and 3.6 %. The systematic smoothing error of NDACC data is between 0.1 % and 0.8 %, and the random smoothing error of NDACC data is about 0.3 %. For TCCON data, the smoothing error is significant because it is higher than the reported uncertainty, particularly at Southern Hemisphere sites. To reduce the influence from the a priori profiles and different vertical sensitivities, the scaled NDACC a priori profiles are used as the common a priori profiles for comparing TCCON and NDACC retrievals. As a result, the biases between TCCON and NDACC X CO measurements become more consistent (5.6 %-8.5 %) with a mean value of 6.8 % at these sites. To determine the sources of the remaining bias, regular AirCore measurements at Orléans and Sodankylä are compared to co-located TCCON measurements. It is found that TCCON X CO measurements are 6.1 ± 1.6 % and 8.0 ± 3.2 % smaller than the AirCore measurements at Orléans and Sodankylä, respectively, indicating that the scaling factor of TCCON X CO data should be around 1.0000 instead of 1.0672. Further investigations should be carried out in the TCCON community to determine the correct scaling factor to Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 5980 M. Zhou et al.: TCCON and NDACC X CO measurements be applied to the TCCON X CO data. This paper also demonstrates that the smoothing error must be taken into account when comparing FTIR X CO data, and especially TCCON X CO data, with model or satellite data.

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]; Océan, Atmosphère

Minqiang Zhou, Bavo Langerock, Corinne Vigouroux, Mahesh Kumar Sha, Christian Hermans, et al.. TCCON and NDACC XCO measurements: difference, discussion and application. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 2019, 12 (11), pp.5979-5995. ⟨10.5194/amt-12-5979-2019⟩. ⟨hal-02414324⟩