Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (May 2008)

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

  • M. De Mazière,
  • C. Vigouroux,
  • P. F. Bernath,
  • P. Baron,
  • T. Blumenstock,
  • C. Boone,
  • C. Brogniez,
  • V. Catoire,
  • M. Coffey,
  • P. Duchatelet,
  • D. Griffith,
  • J. Hannigan,
  • Y. Kasai,
  • I. Kramer,
  • N. Jones,
  • E. Mahieu,
  • G. L. Manney,
  • C. Piccolo,
  • C. Randall,
  • C. Robert,
  • C. Senten,
  • K. Strong,
  • J. Taylor,
  • C. Tétard,
  • K. A. Walker,
  • S. Wood

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 9
pp. 2421 – 2435

Abstract

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The ACE-FTS (Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment &ndash; 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 CH<sub>4</sub> 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 &ndash; lower stratosphere, and within 25% in the middle and higher stratosphere up to the lower mesosphere (&lt;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.