NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#29 SEP. 2013

ISSUE # 29
SEPTEMBER 2013

CONTENTS
NEWS     5th Japan-US Joint Vicarious Calibration of GOSAT			in Railroad Valley, NV, USA

01

GOSAT PEOPLE

いぶき
IBUKI

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER
Independent Administrative Institution
National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES)
A newsletter on the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite(GOSAT, “IBUKI” ) project from the NIES GOSAT Project Oﬃce.

    A Series: Supporting GOSAT Project (5)          - Big Stagehands in System Operation for			
Higher Level Data Processing

03

NEWS    Visit to NIES by Dr. Kaye, Associate Director, NASA

04

INTERVIEW
    A Series: IBUKI 's PI Interview - Prof. Justus Notholt

05

PUBLISHED PAPERS

07

DATA PRODUCT UPDATE

08

http://www.gosat.nies.go.jp/

5th Japan-US
Joint Vicarious Calibration of GOSAT
in Railroad Valley, NV, USANEWS

Yu Oishi,  Research Associate,
Center for Environmental Measurement and Analysis,  NIES
The 5th vicarious calibration*1 wascarried out from June 16 to 21, 2013
jointly with US ACOS*2/OCO-2*3 team in

Railroad Valley (RRV, map right), NV, USA.

Group photo on the 1st day of observation (back row from left, Mr. Nelson, Ms.

13 people joined this time, 7 from Japan,

Kataoka, Dr. Kawakami, Mr. Roby, Dr. Schwandner, Mr. Wetzel; front row from left,

6 from US.

Dr. Oishi (writer), Dr. Kuze, Dr. Yokota, Dr. Bruegge, Ms. Yang, Dr. Shiomi, Dr. Kato)

Sensitivity of sensors onboard satellites degrades by aging due

Angeles International Airport first. At NASA JPL* 4 (Jet Propulsion

be verified periodically. The degradation is evaluated by comparing

instruments sent from Japan and put everything necessary on ato the space environment, requiring the degree of degradation toradiances between one observed by the satellite and the othercalculated by radiative transfer code. This campaign observes

surface reflectance and vertical profiles of temperature, humidity,

etc., all of which are input for the radiative transfer code. RRV is avast, physically almost homogeneous dried-up lake (playa) withhigh surface reflectance, 1400m above sea level, broader than the

Laboratory) in Pasadena, we checked the operation of observation
freight truck. Then we drove all the way of 600km north to Tonopah,

and then 150km east to RRV (from the next day on, we commutedfrom Ely, 150km north-east of the site). Now we are ready forvicarious calibration!

There were manyobservation footprint of TANSO-FTS (approx. 10km) onboard GOSAT;

observations conducted

best for vicarious

surface reflectance bythese make RRVcalibration (photoright).

We from Japan

went to RRV from
Los Angeles or
Las Vegas, divided

in 3 groups. My group of 3 members moved to Pasadena from Losother than ground

spectroradiometer (photoright); vertical distributions of atmospheric pressure, temperature,and humidity by radiosonde (photo left); vertical distributions ofCO2, CH4, O3, atmospheric temperature, and humidity by NASA Alpha
Jet; column amounts of CO2 and CH4 by Optical Spectrum Analyzer*5(OSA); solar flux by pyranometer; anisotropy of ground surface
reflectance by PARABOLA (Portable Apparatus for Rapid Acquisitionof Bidirectional Observation of Land and Atmosphere); O3 column

1­­NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#29 SEP. 2013pool for us. It was really nice for a change.

amount by ozonometer (Microtops II); soil moisture content by soil

moisture sensor. I was directly involved with the observation of

In the evenings, we tried supersized steaks at a restaurant in Ely,surface reflectance by spectroradiometer, which was installed on the

had a potluck party beside Cave Lake, and others giving variety forbaby carriage to observe reflected radiances from the ground andthe sake of refreshing ourselves.

spectralon diffuser plate: both data are required for the calculation of
the ground reflectance. We helped each other whenever available,

Blessed with fine weather through the period this time, we were

manpower being limited for a lot of task.

able to get good data at every observation and got back safe andsound to Pasadena via Tonopah as on the first day. At JPL, they

RRV is located 1400m above sea level, very dry and hot (about 35℃

continued observation to compare ground-based FTS and OSA,

during the day) and too flat to escape from occasional strong windwhose installation only I helped and left for Japan from Los Angeles

with sand, which made it indispensable for us to cover our skin with

Airport a little earlier than the others.

sunblock cream, clothes, and hats/caps (clips required to keep themon). Water and mineral supplementation were fatally important to

I am very grateful for the opportunity to be given this valuable

avoid heat stroke, and we prepared plenty of sports drinks in a cold

experience, the collaborative vicarious calibration under thebox for everyone when needed.

scorching sun. I thank you all, everyone in Japan team, US team, andwho supported our activities there.

On those days not synchronizing with GOSAT, we were divided into

2 groups, one staying with observation task and the other going on<< Our typical day >>a day off. The latter enjoyed a very short vacation at a hot spring in

06:30 Wake-up, check e-mailDuckwater, taking Chirashizushi (Sushi rice bowl with toppings – not

07:00 Breakfast, preparation for the day

hand-shaped individually) and swimming with freshwater fish in the(sunblock cream for strong UV, etc.)

spring, which is cool enough for them to live in, a kind of swimming

08:20 Leave hotel, refueling and drink shopping
10:00 Arrive at RRV base camp

10:30 Meeting (analyses of the previous day explained),prepare instruments

12:30 Help release radiosonde

12:45 Move to the site, instruments installed on the baby carriage
13:15 Start observation

13:45 GOSAT passed over
14:15 End observation,

instruments uninstalled from the baby carriage

15:00 Back to base camp, copy data, cleanup instruments

16:30 Cleanup base camp (pack and pickup things except tent,
put the toilet in order)

17:00 Leave base camp

18:30 Arrive at hotel, upload data,
charge batteries, shower

19:30 Go out for dinner

21:30 Get back to hotel, preparation
for the next day, check e-mail24:00 Go to bed[Photo upper] Chirashizushi lunch. US members use chopsticks[Photo right] Observation’s over. Last shotat base camp.

beautifully. [Photo lower] Mr. Wetzel, the swimmer.

*1 Atmospheric CO2 Observations from Space team is a group organizedaround OCO (Orbiting Carbon Observatory) science team involving
researchers of JPL*4, Caltech, and Colorado State University.
*2 Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 is a CO2 observing satellite of the US to
be launched in 2014.
*3 Please refer to #7, #19, and #24 newsletters for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th RRVVicarious Calibration Campaigns.
*4 Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research anddevelopment center and operated by Caltech for NASA.
*5 An instrument to observe spectra using a grating, which was used in the
ship-based observation reported on #25 newsletter.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Accepting Applications of GOSAT RA#6
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NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#29 SEP. 2013

GOSAT PEOPLE A Series: Supporting GOSAT Project (5)Big Stagehands in System Operation for Higher Level Data Processing
Masataka Ajiro, GOSAT Project Office Manager, Center for Global Environmental Research, NIES
This time let us introduce how GOSAT Data Handling Facility

day, happen to carry identical or undefined file names for some

The hardware maintenance and system operation of GOSAT

1 data and catalogue information in near-real-time processing.

(GOSAT DHF) is operated and maintained: how their work is going.

reasons. There are 3,200 to 3,600 files every day for GOSAT Level

DHF are handled by NS Solutions Corporation and its affiliated

It is necessary for all the Level 1 data to check the total countcompanies. The system offers data provisioning services toand consistency between data to find and handle any abnormal

users all over the world, GOSAT DHF being basically required

data immediately, because once the abnormality is overlooked,

24x7 operation except for regular maintenance. The system isdata processing proceeds towards the generation of higher level

designed and developed based on automatic operation, however,products to register them, the incorrect products, on the catalogue.

some unexpected circumstances may happen to come up likeThus careful data examination at the upstream is quite important

hardware faults, performance limitations of introduced commercial

to ensure both products’ reliability and efficient use of systemapplications, etc. The people at DHF are in charge of emergent

resources.

measures of these issues and thorough investigation of their

How to realize stable products provisioning

causes. Also, they cover the window functionality for users’ Q&A
and communication with other organizations.

There were continuous trials and errors in improving operationand maintenance of the system as in repeated enhancement ofHow data products offered from the system

its design and development to establish stable organization as awhole. 2010 was the year of hard times to handle many version

For the processing of GOSAT observation data, not only

updates and related reprocessing including Level 1 data, which

GOSAT Level 1 data from JAXA, but also auxiliary data such as

obliged us to execute complicated parallel control of versions. The

meteorological data provided by Japan Meteorological Agency

situation was dealt one by one by NIES project members working(JMA) are required. The DHF operators (hereafter "Operators")

together to find issues, propose and discuss improvements, andcheck the data acquisition status periodically and get data

modify processes, and now we are able to provide products tomanually if needed. As you may know, some products areusers routinely.

generated “on demand” based on users’ specified region and timeof their interest; in the case of FTS Level 2 products, all the scansprovision through GOSAT User Interface Gateway (GUIG) is a

Improvement of data processing control function andrenovation of GUIG

ready to be downloaded from prepared data.

The first one occurred in May, 2010, to improve data processing

processing, and data transmission between JAXA and GOSAT DHF.

subsequent processes must have been halted. It made availableof interest are recorded in a file as a product. This on-demandunique function of GOSAT DHF. Other higher level products are

We have had two major improvements on the system function.

Operators watch all the status of product generation, data

control function. Once some particular error occurred, all the

Because the automation of operation has made very complicatedmachine time wasted if the error occurred with no Operators

relationships between system modules, Operators have to have aattended on holidays/midnights. However, now it is possible towide variety of professional knowledge on system operation andcontinue processes automatically judged not to be affected by thedata processing flow to locate abnormality and prevent it frompreceding error. Another example of improved control function

spreading to affect subsequent processes.

is the automatic start of data reprocessing under predefined

GOSAT DHF processes Level 1 data from JAXA on a near-real-conditions: there is no need of complicated preparation/setting

time basis and also reprocesses the existing GOSAT observationof parameters, which once required about one month, to startdata when Level 1 and/or higher level processing algorithms are

the processing. That was enabled by e-mail notification function

updated.

telling the status and progress of data processing and monitoring

Operators were initially worried about the system resource

function to get system load and history instantly. Now it’s possible

allocation (scheduling) between near-real-time processing andto run near-real-time processing and reprocessing efficiently, withreprocessing to improve the operation efficiency, monitoringmuch reduced load on Operators.

the resource status at the same time. The problem originated in

The second is GUIG renovation on October, 2010. The front pagethe discrepancy between the operation estimated by the system

was renewed and product search function (simplified search)

Operators including closer information exchange to improveobservation date, version, etc., to produce a product, whereas

developer and the real one, which was solved by proposals fromadded. The simplified search requires only product category,the system. 4 years’ experience and continuous improvements

detailed parameters were once required to order products you

have also contributed to stable operation of the system and thewant. We will do our best to improve the convenience of users.

Operators’ skill upgrading.

How GOSAT DHF equipment renewed and enhanced

How Level 1 data examined

GOSAT DHF was introduced in 2007 and 2008 in a phasedmanner and in 2011 - 2012, the existing equipment was renewed,

GOSAT Level 1 data, obtained automatically from JAXA every

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NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#29 SEP. 2013

realizing improved availability by adopting virtual system, better

reliability by redundant server configuration, and smaller footprint
and increased maintainability by equipment integration, to enable
more stable and uninterrupted operation.

During the renewal, we conducted a parallel operation of existingand introduced equipment as much as possible to expedite
and complete data migration and cutover in (1) having all back-ups, (2) stopping distribution of old version products and listing

their corresponding data source, (3) data migration of requisite

minimum, (4) confirming all system functions. We carried out
system halt and system work as planned to minimize migration

effect on daily operation through repeated discussion by GOSAT

project office, equipment personnel, system developers, andOperators, to accomplish all the work successfully. That really was avaluable experience for us all.

There is another plan to upgrade control equipment of thesystem. We are determined to complete the work without any
troubles and keep stable operation of GOSAT DHF.

Kaizen*1 activity to be continued

We will continue information sharing and kaizen activity

between Operators to keep stable and efficient system operation.

We know it is uninterrupted provisioning of GOSAT products that

contributes most to users and researchers around the world whoare at the other end of the system. We are very happy to support
you all.

NEWS[Photo upper] Operation personnel: front row from left, Mr. Watanabe,
Mr. Kurotaki, Mr. Usuzuki, Mr. Mochizuki, Mr. Ichijo; back row from left,
Mr. Suzuki, Mr. Takubo; upper left corner, Mr. Tojima.
[Photo lower] Maintenance personnel: from left, Mr. Makino, Mr. Miyata.
*1 This Japanese word literally means “improvement” with connotationof bottom-up activation by proposals and discussion from any person
in and “around” (not necessarily “in charge of ”) the work, sometimes
beyond his/her job description, when used in business context.

Visit to NIES by Dr. Kaye, Associate Director, NASA
Tsuneo Matsunaga, Leader, GOSAT-2 Project Team, Center for Global Environmental Research (CGER), NIES
at NIES, which are employed in theministries and space agencies for satellite

Dr. Kaye remarked on the high-level andobservation by satellites.

observation of atmospheric aerosols.

precise measurements of greenhouselaunch of a NASA satellite, the OCO-2

systems, shipping, aircrafts and satellites -2014.

whereby our institute is currently central
Dr. Jack A. Kaye, Associate Director

Following the tour, Dr. Kaye and Dr.

Akimasa Sumi, President of NIES, engaged

the occasion of his presence in Japan to

between the respective space policies

participate in the 41st meeting of theCoordination Group for Meteorological

Satellites (CGMD-41). During his visit(Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2) in Julyto the measurement of GHGs in Asia.

for Research, Science Mission Directorate,
NASA, visited NIES on July 10, 2013 on

Dr. Kaye also touched on the scheduledgases (GHGs) at NIES, utilizing our various

platforms, which include ground-based#1

missions; and future visions for GHG

in a lively talk focused on the differencesof Japan and US; the division of roles
and responsibilities between national

Dr. Kaye toured three facilities of CGER

#3
[Photo#1] Form left, Dr. Matsunaga, Mr.

Blackerby, Dr. Kaye, NIES President Dr. Sumi,- the Aircraft Monitoring Laboratory,

Dr. Yokota.

the Atmospheric Constituents Spectra[Photo#2] Dr. Machida showing the Aircraft

Laboratory, and the GOSAT Research

Monitoring Laboratory around.

Computation Facility (RCF). He was also

[Photo#3] Dr. Morino showing the Atmos-

shown the lidar facilities of the Center forpheric Constituents Spectra Laboratory

Environment Measurement and Analysis

#2

4­­

around.

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#29 SEP. 2013

INTERVIEW

A Series: IBUKI 's PI Interview
No.10    University of Bremen,   Physics

Prof.

Justus Notholt
Prof. Justus Notholt visited Japan this May to attend the 5th

GOSAT RA PI Meeting and IWGGMS-9 as an RA PI. This interview

was held at the time in Yokohama, which is famous for its big

Chinatown with long history, where we took advantage of thisbeautiful opportunity to talk over good Chinese lunch.

He seemed to be a man of quiet conscience, and of clarity,

serious enthusiasm and patience as well, to answer plainly
everything we asked.

(Interviewers: I. Morino, O. Uchino, et al, NIES GOSAT Project)
Morino (hereafter M) Thank you forfurther for simultaneous measurements of

did my Habilitation in 2000 at the Free

ask about your personal history: where you

and a half years until 1990. Then I moved

I moved to Bremen to become there

coming, Dr. Notholt. To begin with, may wewere born and grew up?

Notholt (hereafter N) I was born insouthern Germany but at the age of one

we moved to Düsseldorf, and from there, at

droplets, like fog. I stayed in Italy for one
to Bremerhaven, to the Alfred-WegnerInstitute for Polar and Marine Research asa senior scientist and there I started with
the FTIR* spectroscopy. I set up the FTIR3

the age of 16, we moved to Kassel. I studied

site in Ny-Ålesund in Spitzbergen, Norway.

Ph.D. in Kassel. But I studied something

connected to the polar ozone loss.

in Göttingen and Kassel, and did also mycompletely different, solid state physics,

The research at the beginning was mainly

X-ray spectroscopy, and I got my Ph.D. in

U: So you measured trace gases like the1989.

N: Yes, and for example HCl, HF, ozone,

surface science and electrochemistry in

Uchino (hereafter U) What kind of

instrument did you use?

N: In my Ph.D. I did Raman spectroscopy.*

1

I investigated one specific new effectwhich is called "surface enhanced Raman
scattering" by laser. I forgot the company,

a very big laser, continuous blue lightlaser. As a postdoc I moved to Italy to join
the European Research Center in Ispra innorthern Italy and started with atmosphericphysics. There I started with DOAS* 2

CFCs?

HNO 3 . I developed measurement andanalysis techniques to use the moon as lightsource during the polar night. After 2 years

I moved to the Alfred-Wegner-Institute in
Potsdam, where I got a permanent job asa group leader. There I stayed for nearlyten years, from 1992 to 2002, to continue
working in Spitsbergen and also performed

the first observations during ship cruises

and I was once also in Antarctica for the
FTIR-observations.

spectroscopy (Different Optical Absorption

U: So I found your ship cruises paper bytroposphere and developed the instrument

N: Yes, by FTS. In the meantime, I also

Spectroscopy). I measured pollution in theFTS*4?

University Berlin, and finally in 2002,
Professor for earth remote sensing.

U: I hear it’s very difficult to become aprofessor in Germany.

N: Yes and No. “Difficult” is a wrong word.
It would say, you need “a lot of luck.” Youmust be good in science, but you mustalso able to lead a group, to get money.

But finally, you must be at the right timeat the right place and I was at the righttime at right place. I was lucky. In Bremen
we are now running the FTIR stations in
Ny-Ålesund, Bremen, Bialystok, Orleans,

Surinam, and during ship cruises. But
we also study the sea ice from satellite,

sea ice remote sensing and have a small

mesospheric modeling group. And we arealso working on FTIR in-situ measurement,
measuring directly t he fluxes of tracegases, the exchange between water andatmosphere.

M: Where is the site?

N: This is done by my coworker, Thorsten
Warneke, he is currently in Malaysia toperform these measurements.

*1 Raman spectroscopy is a method to analyze spectra obtained fromlight by moving one of a pair of 2 mirrors and observes spectra inaccording to the substance.

Transform Spectrometer) when the wavelengths to observe are notinfrared region after Fourier transformation. It's also called FTS (Fourier

Raman scattering which produces a particular wavelength change

limited. The instrument has advantages that (1) it can observe a wider*2 DOAS is a method to measure gaseous substance which has arange of wavelengths at one time, (2) it can handle a higher lightparticular photoabsorption spectrum in UV-visible region.

intensity, compared to grating spectrometer (*6).

*3, *4 Fourier Transform InfraRed spectrometer obtains interfering

5­­NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#29 SEP. 2013

U: What kind of concentrations do you

you can improve the retrieval so the results

N: We measure CO 2 , CH 4 , CO, H 2 O andthe moment, there is no better satellite

measure?

different isotopes. Malaysia is one site, but

are becoming better and better. I think at

about the history and the sources of H2O.

than GOSAT for CO 2 and CH 4. Therefore

U: So what is your feeling about present

NASA instrument failed (OCO*7), hopefully

N: It’s very good. The instrument is running

we are also interested in the big rivers.

GOSAT is really necessary. The launch of theRussian rivers, but this is difficult. We would

there will be a second launch (OCO-2* ),The best would be the Amazon, or the big

like to go there, but that’s not easy becauseof import, export, research permissions, allthese problems.

M: You are European co-chair of TCCON*5

and you have made a great contribution tovalidate the GOSAT data. Please tell us how
your sites and group are promoted.

both H2O and HDO, you learn something

8

and the lifetime of the European instrument

SCIAMACHY* is over. What I think most9

important is, quantifying the fluxes of CO2

and CH4. Measuring concentration is one

thing, but finally we need the fluxes to thestrengths of the sources and sinks.

U: But to get CO2 fluxes, we usually have to

GOSAT status?

nearly perfect. Nearly every satellite has,or will become problems throughout the
lifetime, but so far, the GOSAT instrument isvery good. But you should try that GOSAT

is running as long as possible so that it has

an overlap with the next satellite: OCO-2,
GOSAT-2, CarbonSat*10, or whatever. Froma scientific point of view, you need to havean overlap to study the long term evolution

N : Ye s . W e h a v e s e v e r a l s i t e s w h i c hsolve the regional bias.

s good. The instrument onboard GOSAT

need a validation at many different sites.

M: Do you have any comment or

they are very good, very accurate and there

project?

participate to the GOSAT validation. That’and the FTS spectrometer is very good. I
am convinced, for this spectral region an

FTS spectrometer is much better than agrating spectrometer* . When using an
6

FTS spectrometer you understand the

instrumental behavior, which means the
spectral line shape function, very good.

And the problems GOSAT has with thesemicrovibrations, this can be solved, because

you understand it, and you can correct forit. But every satellite instrument needs avalidation. If you want to measure CO2 or

CH4, the natural variability is very small. The

seasonal variability of CO2 is 10 ppm to 20

ppm: you have concentration of 380 ppm.
So this is around a few percent. Therefore
if you want to measure CO2, you must be
better than 1% and also if you want tocompare different regions, you must havea very high accuracy. Therefore, you needa good validation and the TCCON sites are
the only sites that can do this. During thelast years, the GOSAT results became betterand better because the analysis of satellite

spectra is an iterative process. You learn alot during the flight time of the satellite and

N: Yes, to understand the regional bias, you
So far, you have in-situ instruments, andare lots of sites worldwide measuring fora long time. But these in-situ instruments

measure only at the surface. If you want tointerpret the data, and get the fluxes, youhave to make assumptions on the verticalmixing, and this is the problem, because

you do not understand the vertical mixing
very well. Total column measurements
are much easier to be used, because withof the trace gases.

r e c o m m e n d a t i o n o n p r e s e n t G O S AT
N: The communication with the GOSAT PIs

is very good, and lot of e-mail exchange,

this works very good, and also the web
page is helpful. For us it’s important, that
there are persons of the GOSAT team that
we can contact if we have questions. But a

few more web pages could be translated toEnglish.

this technique you get all the molecules in

Aikawa (hereafter A) I hear some people

at which altitude. And we saw from the

N: Yes, but I think this is good. There is acolumn data really helped and improved

and Japan. When OCO failed, there was a

the atmospheric column, doesn’t matter
results in the last years that the total

the results for the fluxes. This is also what

has been said today during the meeting,and the final statement, the uncertaintyof the fluxes reduced by 50%. This is forme the main result. But there are many,
many other important things because
GOSAT also measures other trace gases, forexample H 2O. When you study H 2O, youneed to study its isotopes. And HDO can bemeasured by GOSAT and when you have

get GOSAT data from ACOS*11.

very good cooperation between the US
whole NASA science team without work,

which now works with GOSAT. I think this isvery good, the GOSAT people are very open
to give the spectra to other people. This
is not normal, but it is very good, because

this helped not only the US scientists but
the whole community. If two or more,
somehow competing agencies are working
both on GOSAT, that’s perfect. It’s always
good to have some competition, because*5 Total Carbon Column Observing Network is a network of the*9 SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmosphericobservations are carried out in more than ten locations worldwide.

was in operation from March 2002 to April 2012.

CHartographY is the sensor mounted on the ESA satellite Envisat, which

ground-based high-resolution FTSs observations. Currently, its*10 Carbon Monitoring Satellite is planned and led mainly by Bremen

TCCON's column-averaged volume mixing ratios of greenhouse gases

University in the ESA's Earth exploration project, targeting at global

are used for validating greenhouse gases observation by satellites andobservation of CO2 and CH4 concentrations, to be launched in 2018.

other carbon cycle studies.

*6 An instrument to observe spectra utilizing the phenomenon that the*11 Please refer to *1 in page 2.

location of strongest interference of light diffracted by grated pattern*12 Conference Of the Parties is a general term, but in this context thatvaries according to the wavelength.

means COP-FCCC (Framework Convention on Climate Change).

*7, *8 Please refer to *2 in page 2.

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NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#29 SEP. 2013

then the scientific output becomes betterand more clear and open.

U: So what do you expect from GOSAT-2;
do you have any request?

N: I hope it will be an FTS instrument.

University are physics shows. That’s somewhat happened in the past. And the

public, with a lot of experiments. That’s fun.

earth, with the atmosphere, the ocean,kind of education, entertainment to the

A: How about political activities? Carbon

cycle is a very political matter, as you know

as seen in the series of COP* conferences
12

M: What is the future plan for yourresearch?

…so how about yourself, your activities?

N: The big problem I see is that theN : I d o n ’ t f u l l y k n o w. R e g a r d i n g m y

mankind does not take climate change

working now in the area of carbon studies,

who say, that there is no anthropogenic

research, more and more people are
the carbon cycle. The amount of fundingis the same, but more and more people

are working in this area, therefore thefunding per group is decreasing, and we

we do not understand all processes andfeedbacks. What we are currently doing is

an experiment with our earth where we
do not know how it will end. This is very
dangerous.

M: This year, Mauna Loa CO2 concentration

greenhouse effect, is increasing, especially

N: But other developing countries, likeis recorded over 400 ppm.

in the US. But even if you do not believe

China or India, have the right to get theby CO 2, there are some numbers which

person in China is still much less than inin anthropogenic global warming caused
demonstrate the danger of the current

ground-based spectroscopy connected toyears, the maximum change in CO 2 wassituation. Throughout the last 600,000

satellites. The combination of ground base1 ppm in 200 years. But now we have an

What I also do besides research at thehappening now is 400 times faster thanand satellite instruments is still quite good.

the land and the ice, is very complex, andserious enough. And the number of people

have to look what will come up soon. But

still, for a long time, in my group it will beearth cannot react so fast. The systemincrease of 2 ppm per year. So, what issame lifestyle as we have. The emission per

the US. But the total emissions from China

are extremely large, because they have somany people. Those countries who havea high living standard must make the firststep. They have the responsibility to start tochange the lifestyle and decrease the CO2
emissions.

A: Germany have abandoned nuclear
power plant. It decided to abolish every
nuclear power plant in 15 years, I hear.

N: Yes, but let’s wait. The politicians change(laughter). They wanted to stop in, I’ve

forgotten, in 10 years or so, but now, they

are already enlarging the period to 20 years
and so on. That’s politics.

M: Yes, you are right. Thank you very much.
N: Thank you.

From left, Dr. Morino, Prof. Notholt, Dr. Uchino

PUBLISHED PAPERS
Field of Research: 	data application
Name of Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
		(Volume 40, pages 2829-2833, 2013)
Title: 	Interpreting seasonal changes in the carbon balance ofsouthern Amazonia using measurements of XCO 2 andchlorophyll fluorescence from GOSAT
Authors: 	N. C. Parazoo, K. Bowman, C. Frankenberg, J.-E. Lee, J. B.
Fisher, J. Worden, D. B. A. Jones, J. Berry, G. J. Collatz, I. T.
Baker, M. Jung, J. Liu, G. Osterman, C. O'Dell, A. Sparks, A.
Butz, S. Guerlet, Y. Yoshida, H. Chen, C. Gerbig
Field of Research: 	data processing algorithm, validation
Name of Journal: Journal of Geophysical Research		(Volume118, pages 4887–4905, 2013)
Title: 	Impact of aerosol and thin cirrus on retrieving andv ali datin g XCO 2 f ro m G OSAT sh o r t w ave inf r are dmeasurements
Authors: 	S. Guerlet, A. Butz, D. Schepers, S. Basu, O. P. Hasekamp,

A. Kuze, T. Yokota, J.-F. Blavier, N. M. Deutscher, D.
W. T. Griffith, F. Hase, E. Kyro, I. Morino, V. Sherlock, R.
Sussmann, A. Galli, I. Aben
Field of Research: calibration
Name of Journal: Applied Optics
		(Volume 52, pages 4969-4980, 2013)
Title: 	Characterization and correction of spectral distortions
induced by microvibrations onboard the GOSAT Fouriertransform spectrometer
Authors: 	H. Suto, J. Yoshida, R. Desbiens, T. Kawashima, A. Kuze
Field of Research: 	data application
Name of Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
		(Volume 40, pages 4098–4102, 2013)
Title: 	F irst satellite measurements of carbon dioxide andmethane emission ratios in wildfire plumes
Authors: 	A. N. Ross, M. J. Wooster, H. Boesch, R. Parker

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NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#29 SEP. 2013

DATA PRODUCTS UPDATE

Data Processing Status Update from GOSAT Project Office
Fumie Kawazoe, Specialist, NIES GOSAT Project OfficeObservation Period and Versions of Publicly Released Data

As of August 30, 2013■
● 141141 355,100 scenes● 150150 302,200 scenes● 150151 1,258,200 scenes● 160160 267,200 scenes● 161160 261,200 scenes

FTS L1B data■

FTS L2 CO2 column amount  (SWIR)● 02.00● 02.10● 02.11

FTS L2 CH4 column amount (SWIR)● 02.00● 02.10● 02.1185,000 scans
88,400 scans
343,600 scans■

85,100 scans
88,400 scans
343,800 scans■

FTS L2 CO2 profile (TIR)FTS L2 CH4 profile (TIR)● 00.01

204,800 scans● 00.01

206,400 scans■

FTS L3 global CO2, CH4 distribution (SWIR)

8 months
3 months
7 months
1 months
5 months
7 months● 01.10● 01.20● 01.30● 01.31● 01.40● 01.50■

CAI L1B data

● 01.00

731,300 frames■

CAI L1B+ data

● 01.00

CAI L2 cloud flag

731,300 frames■● 01.00■■

CAI L3 global radiance distribution● 01.00

CAI L3 global reflectance distribution■● 01.00

CAI L3 NDVI

729,300 frames
1,605 recurrences
525 months■● 01.00
L4A global CO2 flux■

L4B global CO2 distribution■● 02.01● 02.01

2009/                                     2010/                                               2011/                                                 2012/                                               2013/4       6       8     10     12      2       4       6       8      10     12      2       4       6       8     10     12      2       4       6       8     10     12       2      4       6       8The chart above is as of August 30, 2013. The latest processed

and released on are: FTS L1B in updated V161.160 (for moredetail, please refer to "Release Notes on GOSAT FTS L1 Products(Ver.161.160)" on GUIG); CAI L1B/L1B+/L2 cloud flag/L3 global
radiance and reflectance distribution, and NDVI in V01.00. The version

1 year
1 year■← Observ. Period

into V02.21 according to the FTS L1B update.

FTS L1B is being reprocessed for the data after January 1st, 2010

under the new version names of V160160 and V161160, which will be
released additionally anytime completed.

The number of registered users is 1526 as of August 29, 2013.

names of FTS L2 CO2/CH4 column amount (SWIR) will be changed

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER

15,420 rectangles

ISSUE #29 SEPTEMBER 2013

Issued on : 2013/9/19

edited and published by : NIES GOSAT Project Oﬃce
You can download this newsletter here:
URL : http://www.gosat.nies.go.jp/eng/newsletter/top.htm

email : gosat_newsletter@nies.go.jp

いぶき
IBUKI

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER

website : http://www.gosat.nies.go.jp/eng/newsletter/top.htm

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please send us an email with your name, email address,

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gosat_newsletter@nies.go.jp

Center for Global Environmental Research
National Institute for Environmental Studies

8­­

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