Transcript Burrows_Vaals_20080513_master_for_press

SCIAMACHY
Abridged History & Highlights
John P. Burrows
on behalf of the SCIAMACHY Team
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Some Key Processes in the Atmosphere
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Why observe the atmosphere from space?
Dramatic changes in population
and anthropogenic emissions!
Mankind is changing the
Earth-Atmosphere system
 Anthropocene  Changes in
 Global transport and
transformation of pollution
 Climate Change - Chemistry
climate feedback
 Global destruction of
stratospheric ozone
Conditions for the Biosphere
depend on the system,
comprising the Sun, the
atmosphere, and earth‘s
surface and non linear
feedback.
Global problems require Global Observations
image: NASA
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SCIAMACHY: Abridged History
1984
Proposal of SCIA-like project for ESA
EURECA – no interest.
1985
Stratospheric ozone hole observed by
Farman et al. (Nature)
1988
SCIAMACHY proposed to ESA
1988/89
Proposal of SCIA-mini/GOME (Global
Ozone Monitoring Experiment) for
ERS-2
1989 – 2002
Design and Development of
SCIAMACHY as
German/Dutch/Belgian
contribution to ENVISAT
April 1995
Launch of ERS-2 with GOME
1997-2000
Selection of GOME-2 for the
EUMETSAT operational series MetOp
February 2002 Launch of ENVISAT with
SCIAMACHY
July 2004
AURA launch with OMI
October 2006 MetOp launch with GOME-2
SCIAMACHY: Scanning Imaging
Absorption spectroMeter for
Atmospheric CHartographY
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SCIAMACHY Project Partners
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~ 1.0 m
SCIAMACHY on ENVISAT
~ 1.1 m
• Total mass 215 kg
• Hardware Cost ~ 100 M€
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SCIAMACHY Measurements
• Imaging spectrometer 240 - 2380 nm
• Over 8000 “colors”
• Spatial resolution typically 30  60
km2
• Nadir, limb scattering and solar &
lunar occultation measurements
• Global coverage in 6 days
• Spectroscopy is used to derive trace
gas distributions in the troposphere,
stratosphere and mesosphere
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The SCIAMACHY Measurement Principle
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SCIAMACHY - Primary Areas of Application
Air Pollution
• What is the extent and
variability of global pollution?
• How is pollution changing?
image: photoeverywhere.co.uk
image: photoeverywhere.co.uk
Climate Change
• Do we understand the
atmospheric greenhouse
gas loading? i.e. sources
and sinks?
Ozone
• Is the ozone layer
recovering?
• How does climate change
affect ozone recovery?
image: photoeverywhere.co.uk
image: photoeverywhere.co.uk
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How does the solar output vary?
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How does the sun influence the atmosphere?
2. Coronal mass ejection arrived at Earth within 1-2 days
producing geomagnetic storms.
1. Solar activity during
October and November
2003 produced solar
flares, coronal mass
ejections and energetic
particles of high
intensity.
3. Bombardment with energetic protons affects
atmospheric composition in the polar regions
(Ozone loss).
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Noctilucent clouds – early indicators of climate change?
• Occurrence near 85 km at polar
latitudes during polar summer
• SCIAMACHY allows cloud detection
and particle size measurements
Noctilucent cloud occurrence rate
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When will ozone recover?
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Is air pollution changing globally? and why?
Tropospheric Nitrogen Dioxide
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What is the distribution of greenhouse gases?
Permafrost?
Land Fill, Ruminants,
Gas/Coal, Waste
Wetlands,
Foliage Trees?
Rice, Ruminants,
Waste, Land Fill
Gas/Coal
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The Breathing Earth
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Feedback between ocean and atmosphere?
Diatoms
• marine phytoplankton plays
central role in the carbon cycle
• ocean took off nearly 30% of man
made CO2
• SCIAMACHY allows separation
of phytoplankton groups
Cyanobacteria
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Summary and Conclusions
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SCIAMACHY provides unique global data sets and their temporal change e.g.
– large increase of atmospheric pollutants over Asia
– greenhouse gases distributions
– stratospheric and mesospheric composition
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SCIAMACHY and ENVISAT are both performing excellently ;
Mission can and must be extended up to 2013 and beyond to avoid data gaps
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About 500 SCIAMACHY scientific publications thus far!
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SCIAMACHY, a trial blazing surveying mission, yields
– Improved mission concepts for atmospheric monitoring
– GMES atmosphere prototype services
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Successful global monitoring of atmospheric composition in the future
depends on having an adequate set of sensors in space and on the ground,
coupled with the necessary scientific infrastructure in Europe.