A thermal infrared instrument onboard a geostationary platform for CO and O-3 measurements in the lowermost troposphere: Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSE)

International audienceThis paper presents observing system simulation experiments (OSSEs) to compare the relative capabilities of two geostationary thermal infrared (TIR) instruments to monitor ozone (O3) and carbon monoxide (CO) for air quality (AQ) purposes over Europe. The originality of this study is to use OSSEs to assess how these infrared instruments can constrain different errors affecting AQ hindcasts and forecasts (emissions, meteorology, initial condition and the 3 parameters together). The first instrument (GEO-TIR) has a configuration optimized to monitor O3 and CO in the lowermost tr posphere (LmT; defined to be the atmosphere between the surface and 3 km), and the second instrument (GEO-TIR2) is designed to monitor temperature and humidity. Both instruments measure radiances in the same spectral TIR band. Results show that GEO-TIR could have a significant impact (GEO-TIR is closer to the reference atmosphere than GEO-TIR2) on the analyses of O3 and CO LmT column. The value of the measurements for both instruments is mainly over the Mediterranean Basin and some impact can be found over the Atlantic Ocean and Northern Europe. The impact of GEO-TIR is mainly above 1 km for O3 and CO but can also improve the surface analyses for CO. The analyses of GEO-TIR2 show low impact for O3 LmT column but a significant impact (but lower than for GEO-TIR) for CO above 1 km. The results of this study indicate the beneficial impact from an infrared instrument (GEO-TIR) dedicated to monitoring O3 and CO concentrations in the LmT, and quantify the value of this information for constraining AQ models