The on-orbit performance of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) instrument and its radiometrically calibrated products

Abstract. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) carries and points a three-channel imaging grating spectrometer designed to collect high-resolution, co-boresighted spectra of reflected sunlight within the molecular oxygen (O2) A-band at 0.765 microns and the carbon dioxide (CO2) bands at 1.61 and 2.06 microns. These measurements are calibrated and then combined into soundings that are analyzed to retrieve spatially resolved estimates of the column-averaged CO2 dry-air mole fraction, XCO2. Variations of XCO2 in space and time are then analyzed in the context of the atmospheric transport to quantify surface sources and sinks of CO2. This is a particularly challenging remote-sensing observation because all…

• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Award: 1439002
• CI
  California Institute of Technology
• JP
  Jet Propulsion Laboratory

  Award: 1439002