Abstract
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.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2421-2435 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 5 2008 |