MERLIN Level 0-1 Processing and Calibration Concept

Lichtenberg, Günter
Aberle, Bernd
Meringer, Markus
Trautmann, Thomas
Ehret, Gerhard
Wirth, Martin
Amediek, Axel

Publication date

May 2018

Abstract

After water vapor and carbon dioxide, methane ($CH_4$)is the most abundant greenhouse gas in the Earth atmosphere. The new generation space borne Lidar mission MERLIN (Methane Remote Sensing Lidar Mission) will make very sensitive measurements of the $CH_4$ distribution with unprecedented quality, with an accuracy <2%. After its launch, MERLIN will track down sources and sinks of methane on a global scale. MERLIN is an active space-borne instrument using a IPDA (Integrated Path Differential Absorption) LIDAR that will measure the atmospheric column content of methane. The difference in atmospheric transmission between a laser emission with a wavelength placed around the center of a CH 4 absorption line (λ_on ≈1.6μm) and a reference ...