The Carbon Balance Observatory (CARBO) Instrument for Remote Sensing of Greenhouse Gases from Space

摘要

We present the current development of the Carbon Balance Observatory (CARBO). CARBO is a wide-swath mapping,low Earth orbit (LEO) new generation of instruments that expands on the ground-breaking CO2 and Solar InducedFluorescence (SIF) measurements pioneered by the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2/3) by adding CH4 and COdetection. The instrument’s spatial coverage is delivered at 2 km by 2 km resolution with a field-of-view of 10o to 15ofrom LEO for a ~200 km wide swath. It achieves roughly 20x better spatial coverage than the OCO-2 instrument, and 3xbetter Solar Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF) detection sensitivity, in a smaller package. CARBO will measureCO2 at <1.5 ppm, CH4 at <7 ppb, CO at <5 ppb and SIF < 20%. The measurement of CO2/CH4/CO/SIF at theseconcentrations will significantly increase our ability to disentangle carbon fluxes into their constituent components.CARBO utilizes innovative immersion grating technology and enables high resolving power spectroscopy (roughly20,000) in a smaller and lighter package that is more cost effective than current space-based CO2 remote sensinginstruments. CARBO modules cover 4 different spectral ranges (from 740 nm to 2.3 ?m), where two channels will bebuilt and field tested. CARBO’s modular architecture reduces implementation risk, accelerates access to space, andextends opportunities to a more diverse set of platforms and launch vehicles. CARBO significantly improves ourunderstanding of the global carbon cycle. Here we discuss an overview of the design elements and focus on the expectedradiometric performance of channels 1 (～760 nm) and 2 (～1600 nm).