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Solar System Exploration Division
Operational

CO2 Sounder (CO2 Sounder)

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has developed an integrated-path, differential absorption (IPDA) lidar approach to measure atmospheric column-averaged CO 2 mole fraction (XCO 2 ). This pulsed laser approach uses a step-locked laser diode source, a fiber laser amplifier, and a high-sensitivity detector. The approach allows measurements of CO 2 absorption and time-resolved laser backscatter profiles. These enable accurate estimates of XCO 2 and range to the Earth's surface and cloud tops under a wide variety of conditions, including darkness, at low sun angles, through broken cloud fields, and the presence of aerosols. The CO 2 Sounder lidar team has demonstrated airborne measurements during several campaigns over the past decade.

Launch Date

2017

Class

--

Website

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has developed an integrated-path, differential absorption (IPDA) lidar approach to measure atmospheric column-averaged CO 2 mole fraction (XCO 2 ). This pulsed laser approach uses a step-locked laser diode source, a fiber laser amplifier, and a high-sensitivity detector. The approach allows measurements of CO 2 absorption and time-resolved laser backscatter profiles. These enable accurate estimates of XCO 2 and range to the Earth's surface and cloud tops under a wide variety of conditions, including darkness, at low sun angles, through broken cloud fields, and the presence of aerosols. The CO 2 Sounder lidar team has demonstrated airborne measurements during several campaigns over the past decade.

Related Publications

2022. "Attenuated atmospheric backscatter profiles measured by the CO2 Sounder lidar in the 2017 ASCENDS/ABoVE airborne campaign.", Earth System Science Data, 14 (8): 3821-3833 [10.5194/essd-14-3821-2022] [Journal Article/Letter]

2024. "Airborne lidar measurements of atmospheric CO2 column concentrations to cloud tops made during the 2017 ASCENDS/ABoVE campaign.", Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 17 (3): 1061-1074 [10.5194/amt-17-1061-2024] [Journal Article/Letter]

2007. "Narrowband, tunable, frequency-doubled, erbium-doped fiber-amplifed transmitter.", Optics Letters, 32 (15): 2073--2075 [Journal Article/Letter]

2010. "Pulsed airborne lidar measurements of atmospheric CO2 column absorption.", Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology, 62 (5): 770-783 [10.1111/j.1600-0889.2010.00502.x] [Journal Article/Letter]