Sensitivity Studies for Methane and Carbon Monoxide Retrievals from Sentinel-5 Precursor
Krings, Thomas; Reuter, Maximilian; Buchwitz, Michael; Heymann, Jens; Hilker, Michael; Bovensmann, Heinrich; Burrows, John P.
University of Bremen, GERMANY

Methane (CH4) is an important anthropogenic greenhouse gas and carbon monoxide (CO) has a large impact on air quality. Both trace gases will be monitored by the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard ESA's Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) satellite mission. Sentinel-5 Precursor is scheduled for launch in 2015. Measurements of CH4 and CO will be performed in the 2.3μm absorption bands with a spectral resolution of about 0.25nm. First results from the scientific verification activities for XCH4 and CO will be presented. Using the BESD (Bremen optimal estimation DOAS) retrieval algorithm that is successfully applied also to XCO2 retrieval from SCIAMACHY, sensitivity studies on simulated observations will be shown taking into account various atmospheric scenarios with varying parameters, for example, for aerosols, clouds, solar zenith angle and surface reflectance.