NASA’s first dedicated Earth remote sensing satellite to study atmospheric carbon dioxide from Space was launched successfully in July, 2014. Its primary objective is to monitor sources and sinks of carbon dioxide. The first science data appears like bar codes. This link http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=84159 provides more information. Has anyone worked on sample OCO-2 data provided by https://co2.jpl.nasa.gov/
http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov/
A couple of answers:
1. Look at the work done to date with data from GOSAT. The OCO-2 science team has been working with these data to prepare for OCO-2 observations which should have advantages over GOSAT, but which will provide similar data. Many papers have been published exploring GOSAT observations.
2. Your question is an open research question. NASA has a science team dedicated to this question. The measurements must be evaluated carefully first - we must learn of their quality since the measurement itself is an experiment. Another basic aspect that is important to understand is the geometry of the measurements. The instrument will measure the entire atmospheric column, and collect narrow stripes of data about 150km apart (varying with latitude), but only repeating once every 15 or so days. And the data won't be available in cloud covered conditions since the satellite detects radiation reflected from the ground.
A couple of answers:
1. Look at the work done to date with data from GOSAT. The OCO-2 science team has been working with these data to prepare for OCO-2 observations which should have advantages over GOSAT, but which will provide similar data. Many papers have been published exploring GOSAT observations.
2. Your question is an open research question. NASA has a science team dedicated to this question. The measurements must be evaluated carefully first - we must learn of their quality since the measurement itself is an experiment. Another basic aspect that is important to understand is the geometry of the measurements. The instrument will measure the entire atmospheric column, and collect narrow stripes of data about 150km apart (varying with latitude), but only repeating once every 15 or so days. And the data won't be available in cloud covered conditions since the satellite detects radiation reflected from the ground.
Thank you Professor Davis for your useful answers. I've found some papers related to GOSAT. It's really helpful to know that OCO-2 will provide similar data to GOSAT. I recently understood that OCO-2's data is expected to be received 90 days after the launch and as you correctly pointed out that the measurements must be evaluated first before it is used for research purposes. It was thought-provoking to read about the Instrument itself http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov/observatory/instrument/# , just shows how much hard work was put into designing and carefully choosing three relatively small wavelength bands (Weak CO2, Strong CO2 and Oxygen O2) from the spectrum.
http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCO-2/data-holdings/oco-2
Another similar observation comes from the Total Column Carbon Observing Network (TCCON). These are ground-based, upwards-looking, column measurements that include CO2 and other gases using a technique very similar to OCO-2 and GOSAT. The TCCON network is a key element in evaluating both GOSAT and, we anticipate, OCO-2 observations. Many papers have been published using TCCON measurements and comparing TCCON and GOSAT observations.
Professor Davis, thank you for pointing out the close connection between TCCON and OCO-2 & GOSAT. I've uploaded some papers that I could find. I'm sure there are more out there. While going through these papers it was compelling to see along with CO2 the importance of methane (CH4) as a powerful GHG. Do you know of any researchers who are working on 'permafrost methane release' ? The melting of methane hydrates will be the ultimate disaster, if they melt, releasing the methane stored behind them.
i am using XCO2 and Solar Induced Fluorescence data of OCO-2 over India.
GOSAT papers Helps you.
Thanks Ankit for your comments.
It has been almost a year now since I posted this question. Back then, the instrument was undergoing calibration phase if I remember. Ever since then, I haven't been keeping a track of the updates.
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