GeoSCIA - Geostationary Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer -Tropospheric pollution monitoring on a regional scale Improvement study. Final report

The scientific objective of the GeoSCIA/GeoTROPE mission is to investigate and assess the importance of anthropogenic activity and natural phenomena on the changing tropospheric composition, linking diurnal with seasonal to annual timescales, and regional with continental to global spatial scales. In the troposphere to variability of chemical loss and source strength combined with the dynamics of transport and mixing induce significant and important short term, i.e. sub-hourly, variations and significant horizontal and vertical variability of constituents and geophysical parameters. Measurements from Geostationary Orbit (GEO) offer the only practical approach to the observation of diurnal variation from space with the pertinent horizontal resolution. Maximum vertical resolution from passive remote sounding measurements from GEO is best achieved in nadir viewing geometry by combining the measurements of selected absorptions of targeted constituents in the backscattered solar and the thermal infrared terrestrial radiance. The GeoSCIA/GeoTROPE mission objective addresses specifically two atmospheric research areas: (a) Pollution/Air Quality, (b) Biomass burning. The mission objectives will respond directly to theme 4 of ESA's Living Planet Programme, but also contribute to themes 2 and 3. GeoSCIA/GeoTROPE would form an appropriate element in the implementation of the joint EU/ESA initiative for a European approach to GMES and can be seen as a demonstration mission for new post-MSG operational meteorological services. From a quantitative assessment of the scientific requirements the targeted geophysical parameters for GeoSCIA/GeoTROPE are: total and tropospheric column amounts (incl. Planetary Boundary Layer PBL) of O_3, CO, CH_4, NO_2, SO_2, HCHO, C_2H_6, PAN, BrO, H_2O, OCS, CO_2, and N_2O; tropospheric height resolved information (incl. PBL) of O_3, CO, CH_4 and N_2O; vertical profiles of H_2O and T; the radiation field at top of the atmosphere; aerosol optical thickness and aerosol layer height; cloud top height, cloud optical thickness and cloud cover. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F04B3+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDeutsche Gesellschaft fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., Bonn (Germany)DEGerman