Towards disentangling natural and anthropogenic GHG fluxes from space - The CarbonSat Earth Explorer 8 Candidate Mission
Bovensmann, Heinrich1; Buchwitz, Michael1; Reuter, Max1; Krings, Thomas1; Gerilowski, Konstantin1; Burrows, John P.1; Boesch, Hartmut2; Brunner, Dominik3; Ciais, Philippe4; Breon, Francois-Marie4; Dolman, Han5; Hayman, Garry6; Houweling, Sander7; Lichtenberg, Günter8; Löscher, Armin9; Sierk, Bernd9; Meijer, Yasjka9; Ingmann, Paul9; Crisp, Dave10
1University of Bremen, GERMANY; 2University of Leicester, UNITED KINGDOM; 3EMPA, SWITZERLAND; 4LSCE, FRANCE; 5VU University Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS; 6CEH, UNITED KINGDOM; 7SRON, NETHERLANDS; 8DLR IMF, GERMANY; 9ESA ESTEC, NETHERLANDS; 10JPL, UNITED STATES

CarbonSat was selected by ESA as a candidate for the Earth Explorer Opportunity Mission (EE8). The objective of the CarbonSat mission is to determine natural and anthropogenic sources and sinks of the two most important anthropogenic greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane. The unique feature of the CarbonSat mission concept is that it offers a combination of high spatial resolution (2 x 2 km2) and broad swath (240 km) to provide global imaging of localised strong emission source areas such as large cities , landfills, power plants, volcanoes, etc. and to be able to separate anthropogenic from natural fluxes using its unique imaging capability. In addition, CarbonSat data will contribute to the quantification natural fluxes of CO2 and CH4 (biospheric CO2, wetland CH4 etc.) and their sensitivity to a changing climate. CarbonSat aims to deliver global data sets of dry column mixing ratios of CO2 and CH4 with high precision (goal: CO2 < 1 ppm, CH4 < 9 ppb) and accuracy. Benefiting from its imaging capabilities, CarbonSat will provide at least one order of magnitude larger number of cloud free measurements and at least one order of magnitude better spatial coverage than GOSAT and OCO. The CarbonSat mission concept builds on the heritage and lessons learned from SCIAMACHY (2002-2012), GOSAT (2009-present) and OCO-2 (2014 onwards) to make scientifically and societal important measurements of the amounts and distribution of CO2 and CH4 for biogeochemical and climate change research. The key sensor of the CarbonSat missions is an imaging spectrometer covering the O2 A-band (around 760nm), weak absorption bands of CO2 and CH4 around 1,6 µm as well as strong absorption bands of CO2 and H2O around 2 µm. CarbonSat entered industrial system feasibility activities in 2012, which are supported by scientific studies and campaigns. Recent results from the scientific studies and supporting campaigns documenting the expected data quality and potential application areas will be presented.