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SUMMARY:The NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory Mission - Dr. Hartmut Boesch\
 , University of Leicester
DTSTART:20080519T131500Z
DTEND:20080519T141500Z
UID:TALK10376@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Paul Young
DESCRIPTION:The NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) will make space-bas
 ed measurements of atmospheric CO2 with the precision\, resolution\, and c
 overage needed to characterize CO2 sources and sinks on regional scales an
 d quantify their variability. OCO will be launched into the A-train end of
  2008. The observatory carries a single instrument that incorporates three
  high-resolution grating spectrometers\, designed to make bore-sighted mea
 surements of the near-infrared absorption bands of CO2 and O2 in reflected
  sunlight. These measurements will be combined to estimate the column aver
 aged CO2 dry air mole fraction\, XCO2. OCO is specially designed to be sen
 sitive to near-surface CO2 concentrations and due to its nadir and sunglin
 t modes will provide soundings over land and ocean.\nHere we will discuss 
 the characteristics of OCO soundings and their measurement uncertainties\,
  given by an analysis of the OCO forward model for different surface types
 \, aerosol loadings\, and solar zenith angle and we will assess merits of 
 OCO's nadir- and glint-viewing modes. We will examine aerosol and cloud st
 atistics derived from MODIS and other satellites to determine the spatio-t
 emporal distribution of the OCO measurement errors and to obtained the exp
 ected number of cloud-free OCO soundings from which multi-shot measurement
  errors are calculated. Finally\, we will discuss how well we expect OCO's
  column-CO2 measurements can constrain the surface sources and sinks. Thes
 e investigations will provide important feedback to help isolate areas whe
 re the retrieval must be improved and give guidance on the optimal observa
 tion and sounding selection strategy for OCO.\n
LOCATION:Unilever Lecture Theatre\, Department of Chemistry
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