References

ACP

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

ACP

1680-7324

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acp-8-2421-2008

Validation of ACE-FTS v2.2 methane profiles from the upper troposphere to the lower mesosphere

De Mazière

¹ Vigouroux

¹ Bernath

P. F.

² ¹⁴ Baron

³ Blumenstock

⁴ Boone

² Brogniez

⁵ Catoire

⁶ Coffey

⁷ Duchatelet

⁸ Griffith

⁹ Hannigan

⁷ Kasai

³ Kramer

⁴ Jones

⁹ Mahieu

⁸ Manney

G. L.

¹⁰ ¹⁵ Piccolo

¹¹ Randall

¹⁶ Robert

⁶ Senten

¹ Strong

¹² Taylor

¹² Tétard

⁵ Walker

K. A.

² ¹² Wood

¹³

Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), Brussels, Belgium

Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Tokyo, Japan

IMK-ASF, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe and University Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany

Laboratoire d'Optique Atmosphérique, Université des sciences et technologies de Lille, Lille, France

Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement, CNRS – Université d'Orléans, Orléans, France

National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO, USA

Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique, Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium

School of Chemistry, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Lauder, New-Zealand

Department of Chemistry, University of York, Heslington, York, UK

New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM, USA

Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

07 05 2008

8 9 2421 2435

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The ACE-FTS (Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment – Fourier Transform Spectrometer) solar occultation instrument that was launched onboard the Canadian SCISAT-1 satellite in August 2003 is measuring vertical profiles from the upper troposphere to the lower mesosphere for a large number of atmospheric constituents. Methane is one of the key species. The version v2.2 data of the ACE-FTS CH4 data have been compared to correlative satellite, balloon-borne and ground-based Fourier transform infrared remote sensing data to assess their quality. The comparison results indicate that the accuracy of the data is within 10% in the upper troposphere – lower stratosphere, and within 25% in the middle and higher stratosphere up to the lower mesosphere (<60 km). The observed differences are generally consistent with reported systematic uncertainties. ACE-FTS is also shown to reproduce the variability of methane in the stratosphere and lower mesosphere.

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