Interim Report 2015 - Application of KLIMA algorithm to CO2 retrieval from IASI/METOP-A observations and comparison with GOSAT/TANSO-FTS products

The research project "Application of KLIMA algorithm to CO2 retrieval from IASI/METOP-A observations and comparison with GOSAT/TANSO-FTS products" aims at the application of the KLIMA inversion algorithm, integrated into the ESA G-POD (Grid Processing On-Demand) operational environment, to processing of IASI/METOP-A spectra and at the retrieval of carbon dioxide columns for comparison and cross-validation with GOSAT TANSO-FTS products. According to the original planning, the activities of the project have been developed in two phases. The objective of Phase 1 has been the development of a prototype software for the retrieval of CO2 columns from IASI data with performance suitable for the comparison with TANSO-FTS products and with basic features meeting the requirements of the integration on G-POD. Phase 1 has been successfully completed. The objectives of Phase 2 are the procurement of a consolidated version of the KLIMA-IASI/G-POD retrieval code, the processing of IASI spectra and the comparison and cross-validation with TANSO-FTS CO2 products. Phase 2 has been completed for the part concerning the operational products of TANSO-FTS band 1,2 and3. An extension has been approved for the completion of the comparison of KLIMA-IASI data with the operational products of TANSO-FTS band 4. In this report, we describe in some detail the work carried out for the first inter-comparison with TANSO-FTS measurements in the thermal infrared region. An extension of the project has been approved in order to complete the comparison of the KLIMA-IASI CO2 vertical profiles and the TANSO-FTS/GOSAT operational products from band 4. The work in the extended period was conducted in close cooperation with Dr. Naoko Saitoh (University of Chiba), who provided us with the dataset from TANSO-FTS band 4 in coincidence with CO2 airborne measurements from the HIPPO campaign that we used as a reference for our inter-comparison. We report herewith the results of the activities performed in 2015 and the progress status of the comparison. As the datasets for the inter-comparison became available in the last months of the year, we expect to be able to complete the work within March 2016 and to report our conclusions in the Final Report of the project.