NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#30 MAR. 2014

ISSUE # 30
MARCH 2014 (the final issue)

CONTENTS
NEWS     COP19/CMP9 Report		
S. Pang / T. Matsunaga     Named and Awarded (Prof. P. Wennberg / T. Yokota)
     ESA "Living Planet Symposium" Report 	
T.  Yokota     GEO Conference / Meeting Report		
T.  Matsunaga

01
02
03
03

GOSAT PEOPLE				     Observing Clouds, Diagnosing Environment    Prof. T. Y. Nakajima

INTERVIEW

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.

04     A Series: IBUKI 's PI Interview - Dr. André Butz

05

DATA PRODUCT UPDATE

08

PUBLISHED PAPERS

09

NEWS

     GOSAT Mission Operation Extended after Nominal Lifetime

ANNOUNCEMENT     GOSAT Newsletter to Be Closed

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

1010Photo #3

NEWS COP19/CMP9 Report
S. Pang, Specialist / T. Matsunaga, Leader
GOSAT-2 Project Team, NIES
UNFCCC COP19/CMP9 started on November 11, 2013
in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. This is the second time for
Poland to host this international conference, the first of which
was COP14 held in Poznan, the one of the oldest cities ofPoland, in December 2008. Warsaw is the largest city in Poland
restored up to each crack in
Photo #1
a brick after once destroyedin World War II, and named
to the UNESCO list of world
heritage in 1980 as “HistoricCenter of Warsaw”. It is also thebirthplace of Chopin, the poetof the piano, and Madame Photo #2
Curie, the Nobel Prize winner inPhysics and Chemistry (Photo#1: Fryderyk Chopin Museum,#2: Maria Sklodowska-Curie
Museum). They use public
transportation of trains, buses,
street cars, etc. very often. We
used street cars between the
hotel and the venue.

initiate domestic preparations for their nationally determined
contributions and to communicate them well in advanceof COP21 in 2015 and also to identify the information to beprovided in putting them forward by COP20. For more details,
please refer to (http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/page3e_000130.
html.
)

At present there are 195 Parties and COP19/CMP9 saw
10,106 registrations (4,779 government officials, 173 fromUN, 151 from specialized agencies, 446 from internationalorganizations, 3,586 from NGO, and 971
from media), 181 side events and 173
booths besides many conferences (Photo#3: The National Stadium, the venue).
NIES displayed at its booth (Photo #4)
during the first week (Nov. 11 (Mon)– 16 (Sat)) a scenario to realize Asian
low carbon society, climate simulation
based on global climate model MIROC5,
animated simulation of global CO2
concentration by GOSAT data, the latest
status of GOSAT-2 under development(whose flyer in Fig. #1), global warming
research funded by MOE, etc. showing its

COP17 in 2011 had hammered out Durban Agreement whichbinds governments to adopt by the end of 2015 a universal
legal agreement on climate change (Durban Platform) beyond
2020, the last year of the second commitment period of Kyoto
Protocol, and COP19 now achieved results that all Parties are to
1­­

Photo #4

Fig.#1NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#30 MAR. 2014

wide variety of environmental research and its outcome. As the
UN Secretariat advocates “walk the talk” and ”lead by example”
these years and manages its hosting conferences in that way,
we NIES mainly used CDs*1 for handing out pamphlets/flyers
to visitors to reduce paper consumption wherever possible.
As for GOSAT/GOSAT-2, we presented to the visitors global
CO2/CH4 column averaged concentration map (L2 product)from June 2009 to April 2013, 64-regional monthly averaged
global CO2 flux map (L4A product), global CO2 distribution (L4B
product) from June 2009 to October 2011, GOSAT-mounted
TANSO-CAI images of haze over Singapore and volcano
eruption in Iceland, etc. using large screen tablets, posters,
banners, pamphlets, and flyers.

distributed GOSAT handouts and presented slides/movies
using a compact projector. GOSAT-2 was introduced here atleast two times: (1) at Japan’s “Proactive Diplomatic Strategy
for Countering Global Warming” published on Nov. 15(Fri)referring to GOSAT-2 scheduled launch in FY2017 on thesecond item of “Application”, (2) at a side event on the second
week.
During the Conference, there were heated discussions on
calculation method of GHG emission amount, reduction targetof each country, economic aid on developing countries topreserve the forest, etc. and we heard an episode telling thatemerging/developing countries like China, India, Venezuela,
etc. indicated dissatisfaction on the term “commitment” usedon the Agreement between the Parties and it was adjusted to“contribution” finally.

Many delegates from the Parties also visited and laid eyes on
displayed materials and brought back CDs and other handouts.
Those from African countries showed lots of interests on
typical 10 actions*2 suggested to realize low carbon society in
Asia and also seemed interested in the above mentioned CO2
concentration animated simulation on African continent.

The registration to COP/CMP is increasing every year
and admission limit to the venue is becoming harder, sosome measures were taken to ease the situation: sharing
electronically on smartphones/Internet such information
as documents under negotiation, agenda of conferences,venue guide, etc. including weather forecast, transportation,
emergency hospitals, daily conversation in Polish, etc. I (Pang)
could watch a live broadcasting on Web back in Japan in theearly morning of Nov. 24 (in Poland 5 p.m., Nov. 23), to know
how they finally adopted the consensus document working
one more day after the schedule. Multinational agreement isreally difficult to make on an action program even if they share
the awareness on global warming.

Dr. Yokota, the GOSAT Project Leader, was interviewed byPeoples Daily and China Radio International. They asked “Howis Japan going to contribute to the Conference as an advanced
country?” His answer was, “We share all GOSAT outcome
among scientists in the world including China to support
their researches and I, as a scientist, have made contributions
to establish scientific basis for UNFCCC through better
observation of greenhouse gases’ concentration and flux in theatmosphere. They appreciates our GOSAT project very muchbecause of the amazing increase of the observation points
realized by the satellite added to ones by the observationon land/sea, which has greatly alleviated the problems of
deficiency and uneven distribution of those points.”

Next COP20/CMP10 will be held in Lima, the capital of Peru,
in December 2014.
*1 Contents in handout CD can be seen on “3. GOSAT Project” in http://
www.nies.go.jp/media_kit/index-e.html.

During the second week of Nov. 18(Mon) – 22(Fri), after
the closure of NIES booth, we had GOSAT-2 banner standin front of Japan Pavilion and at Japan booth, I (Matsunaga)

NEWS

Named and Awarded

promotion of GOSAT project.
The prize is intended to

bestow those who have greatly

Prof. Paul Wennberg (Photo #1),

affected the development andCalifornia Institute of Technology

improvement of meteorology or

and chair of TCCON* , was cited1for hisits related technology through“seminal contributions to

Photo #2

their research/study/writing, etc. in the boundary/adjacent/

our understanding of atmosphericunprecedented field of the science.

chemistry" by the American GeophysicalUnion (AGU) as he was named to
the 2013 Class of Fellows, an honor*2 Please refer to(http://2050.nies.go.jp/file/ten_actions_2013.pdf )for
more details.

Photo #1

bestowed on no more than 0.1% of AGU members in any year.

Also Dr. Tatsuya Yokota (left in Photo #2), NIES GOSAT

Project Leader, was awarded Horiuchi Award 2013 byMeteorological Society of Japan for his contribution to the*1 Total Carbon Column Observing Network is a network of the groundbased high-resolution FTS observations. Currently, its observations arecarried out in about twenty locations worldwide. TCCON's column-

averaged abundances of greenhouse gases are used for validating
greenhouse gases observation by satellites and other carbon cycle
studies.

2­­

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#30 MAR. 2014

ESA "Living Planet Symposium" Report

NEWS

T. Yokota, Leader, GOSAT Project, Center for Global Environmental Research, NIES
The symposium mentioned above

one of ESA’s third party missions andEdinburgh International Conference

together with data from SCIAMACHY*1

was held on September 9-13, 2013 at

Centre, UK. That is held every 3 years

from 2004 hosted by European Space

Agency (ESA) to present scientificresults and plans on Earth diagnosis andits data are used by ESA researchersand others. They reported on GOSAT,

mainly from European universities/

Institutions (University of Leicester,
University of Edinburgh, KIT/SRON* 2),prediction by satellites, focusing aroundin sessions such as Greenhouse Gases

satellites and future missions. It was the

Climate Change Initiative (CCI), Data

ESA’s ENVISAT data including related

fourth of serial symposia (refer to http://
www.livingplanet2013.org/).

Photo #1

Assimilation, etc., showing outcomesCCI (http://www.esa-ghg-cci.org/) onthat the retrieval accuracy of CO 2/CH4

column-averaged concentrations by
GOSAT data has been improved and

There were also poster sessions besides

sessions held parallelly in 9 independentrooms, gathering more than 1800
participants. GOSAT has been placed asNEWS

Also prior to this symposium, Dr. M.

Buchwitz of University of Bremen etmonitoring regional specific events.

Except for Opening (Photo #1) andPhoto #2

(1) - (3), Greenhouse Gases (GHG) – ESA

they are useful for estimating flux and

Closing Plenary Sessions, there were 144

center is a model of Envisat (arrowed)).

oral presentations, zoned in an unusual

way of broad corporate exhibit area andcoffee break corner placed at the centerand poster boards aligned around them

(Photo #2: grey panels put along yellow
back wall are poster boards; at the

GEO*1 Conference / Meeting Reportal. held a press conference at GHGSeptember 4, 2013, to announce theaccomplished CO2/CH4 trend observed
by SCIAMACHY and GOSAT for morethan 10 years (refer to http://www.esaghg-cci.org/?q=node/118).

*1 SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter
for Atmospheric CHartographY is the sensor
mounted on the ESA satellite Envisat, which
was in operation from March 2002 to April
2012.
* 2 K a r l s r u h e I n s t i t u t e o f Te c h n o l o g y /Netherlands Institute for Space Research

T. Matsunaga, Leader
GOSAT-2 Project Team, NIES

I attended International

extraction required for global carbon

activities related to GEO task CL-02

Observing System: Progresses andproposal creation for policy makers

between members and create theConference "Towards a Global Carbon
Challenges" (Oct. 1 - 2) and Meeting of

the GEO CL-02* 2 task "Global Carbon

Observations and Analysis System"(Oct. 3 - 4) held at World MeteorologicalOrganization, Geneva. There were total
99 attendee including 9 from Japan:

Dr. Saigusa from NIES, Dr. Kondo/
Dr. Murayama from National Instituteof Advanced Industrial Science andTechnology, Dr. Shiomi from JAXA, Dr.
Ghosh from National Institute of Polar

cycle observation system design andto be distributed at Earth Observation

Summit, January 2014. The presentationconsisted of 6 sessions (1: TropicalC-budget and hotspots, 2: In situ
observations, 3: Observations fromspace, 4: Global methane cycle, 5: Modeldata fusion at global and regional

scale, 6: Carbon and policy), 37 oralpresentations including a keynote
speech, and 42 posters.

I presented “GOSAT and GOSAT-2:

and discussed how to enhance linkage
proposal mentioned above. The first
day had 14 reports including those fromJapan: GOSAT status by Dr. Shiomi, CO2
flux estimates in Kanto area with top-

down method by Associate Professor
Imasu, and activity reports by Dr.

Saigusa/ Dr. Kondo/ Dr. Murayama. The

second day had heated discussions oncooperation on CL-02 and the contentsof the proposal.

It was really a meaningful opportunity

Research, Associate Professor Imasu of

Achievements and Future Plan” infor us to be able to overview the latest

Mr. Ochiai/Ms. Mano of GEO Secretariat,

presentation titled “GOSAT-2 Mission

modelling, and exchange opinions on

the University of Tokyo (Oct. 3 - 4 only),and myself.

In the first half of the Conference

they presented the latest outcomes inobservation and modelling of carbon
cycle and GHGs on various levels fromstudy to policy, targeting at elements’session #3 and Dr. Shiomi made a poster

Requirements and Concepts”. Dr. D.
Crisp, Dr. M. Buchwitz, and Dr. D. Jacob

also made presentations on GHGs
observation from space.

In the latter half of the Meeting theyreported outcomes by existing/new
3­­

status of carbon cycle observation andand discuss the future development.

*1 “GEO” stands for “Group on Earth
Observations.”*2 This means #2 task on CLimate, whose
theme is “Global Carbon Cycle Observation
and Analysis.”

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#30 MAR. 2014

GOSAT PEOPLE

Observing Clouds, Diagnosing EnvironmentProf. T. Y. Nakajima, School of Information Science/Research and Information Center (TRIC), Tokai University
Clouds always in my sightapplied it to develop an effective method to detect clouds. He also
introduced the idea of “neutral cloud identification” then, which
made the algorithm bias-free from both cloud and clear sky byconsidering tendencies of sensors’ bands whether they are likely tooverlook clouds or misjudge clear sky to be cloudy. The algorithm
named CLAUDIA* 2 has the advantage of applicability to many
imaging sensors beyond CAI of IBUKI because of its most simple

I am in a habit of looking into the far distance since my boyhood.
On a train or in a car, my eyes always go directly to the farthest andbroadest sky or horizon. Born and bred in a city, rows of houses
went on and on around me, so I loved to watch the endmost edgeof the landscape catching clouds whenever we were out to thesuburbs. This habit since my infancy seems to connect to my study,
cloud science and cloud observation.

design structure.

IBUKI and clouds
I am now observing clouds using GOSAT (IBUKI ), the joint mission

IBUKI , the versatile player
Now it is time for us to have a clear vision of the global
environment to hand over to the next generation and to takeany action if required. Observation comes first to have a correct
vision. Japan’s GOSAT (IBUKI ) with a leading-edge FTS is a satelliteof MOE, NIES, and JAXA. IBUKI ’s main sensor is a Fourier Transform

Spectrometer (TANSO-FTS), accompanied by a Cloud and Aerosol
Imager (TANSO-CAI) to
support data processingof TANSO-FTS. The image
data from CAI are used
to identify the existenceof clouds and aerosols
within the FTS's fieldof-view and to retrieve
their optical properties*1.

to be boasted to the world. First, it has accommodated theglobal observation of GHG concentration distribution to identify
anthropogenic effect in carbon cycle. Second, it also has shown
how it is versatile with its CAI in recognizing various events such as
volcanic eruptions and atmospheric pollutions which greatly affectcivil life. For example, the CAI’s high resolution and performance,
which can distinguish plume from clouds clearly, attracted theworld’s attention during volcanic eruptions*3 in Iceland occurred in

April 2010 and May 2011. These roles of IBUKI are taken over by its

Instead of human eyes, clouds and aerosols are observed by anunusually sensitive mechanical eye which has the spatial resolutionof 500m from 666km above the ground, which is equivalent to finda 1.5m high tree standing 2km away. The mechanical eye, however,has a weak point: it cannot make a synthetic judgment whichis easy for human eyes, to judge with a high degree of accuracy
what object is in their field of view integrating every situation.
The eye catches the object’s characteristics by utilizing the lightwith several wavelengths. I have been trying to find what feature
amounts imply the existence of clouds.
This is considerably a difficult work. Viewed from space, which ismuch different seen from the ground, there are many other brightareas than clouds: snow-covered ground which has the samebrightness as clouds, deserts which looks fairly bright as it is, andsunlight reflection on the sea which appears bright almost clouds.
These all can lead to misjudgment of cloud existence. It is actuallydifficult, though seemingly simple, to identify clouds from CAI
images. CAI has only 4 bands from ultraviolet to near-infrared. We
need to judge clouds using this limited information compared to
up-to-date imaging sensors with 20 - 35 bands.

successor (GOSAT-2).

Caring trees to raise forests
You may think the global observation from space is not directly
related to your daily civil life, but it is. Apart from IBUKI a bit, let metell you about the study in power and energy fields where I lately
involved and the observation has a great role. There will come anage of energy mix to use renewable ones like solar and wind, andactually their plants are increasing at a frightening pace as you
know. This indispensable power’s supply and demand need to
be always balanced not only in total, but in temporal scale from asecond to a week, and also in various spatial scale from city/town/
village to country/region, and solar and wind, the most available
ones now, depend greatly on the weather, which proves theimportance of geoscience and observation from space. The newenergy management system to be established from now must also
be stable and sustainable against environmental changes, which
requires a long-term consideration to climate change. CLAUDIA,
developed during the CAI studies, can help identify clouds fromspace and the FTS measures GHGs with high precision to support
global warming study. Thus the presence of satellites like IBUKI

Happy study days with the younger generation
The algorithm to identify clouds from satellite data wasdeveloped with my colleagues and graduate students around2008. Dr. H. Ishida, who is a specialist on atmospheric radiativetransfer and an Assistant Prof. of Yamaguchi Univ. now, did a greatjob in my lab at that time. He took notice on the slight differenceof radiative properties between cloud and ground surface andand its successor will become greater and greater. I mainly observe
ever-changing clouds, however, my eyes go far into the future
globe in terms of centuries. So I feel like a man of silviculture thesedays who closely takes care of each tree in front of me, hoping forthe advent of a good forest in several generations.

*1 CAI can specify the aerosol optical thickness, etc. with which you canchaos in European countries including shutdown of airlines. For images*2 CLoud and Aerosol Unbiased Decision Intellectual Algorithm.

newsletter04e.pdf )and(http://www.gosat.nies.go.jp/eng/newsletter/

estimate the influence of aerosol on the observed FTS spectra.

caught by CAI, please refer to(http://www.gosat.nies.go.jp/eng/newsletter/newsletter17e.pdf .

*3 The large-scale eruption of Icelandic volcano in April, 2010 caused a)4­­

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#30 MAR. 2014

INTERVIEW
A Series: IBUKI 's PI Interview
No.11   Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Dr.

André Butz
Dr. André Butz visited Japan last May to attend the 5th GOSATRA PI Meeting and IWGGMS-9. This interview was held at theopportunity in Yokohama and the one got last following #28(Dr. Camy-Peyret) and #29 (Prof. Notholt) interviews.

He is at the young age of early 30s with a voice clear and richin overtones (this was really helpful in transcribing the recordedinterview), stating difficulties and challenges, the importanceof balance between theory and model, and social significanceof observation from space.

(Interviewers: T. Yokota and Y. Yoshida, NIES GOSAT Project)

NIES (hereafter N) Thank you forcoming here. At first I’d like to ask you
where you were born and your student
time and which field have you learned,
and why did you select your instituteand your job.
Dr. Butz (hereafter B) I was born inGermany, in the northern part of Bavaria.
After school, I started studying physics
at Würzburg University in Germany.
Then I moved to the US where I did my
Master’s degree in atomic physics at theState University of New York at Stony
Brook. My master project investigatedthe quantum-mechanical Stark effect*1
in a beam of hydrogen atoms thatwere subject to external electric fields.
When changing the direction andstrength of the electric fields, we could
observe sudden or adiabatic populationtransfer in the Stark states dependingon the rate of field change we applied.
Interestingly, we could predict thisbehavior by a requantized version ofclassical mechanics. After one year at
Stony Brook, I went back to Europe
where I started my Ph.D. with Prof. Klaus
Pfeilsticker from Heidelberg, and Prof.
Claude Camy-Peyret* 2 from Paris. My
Ph.D. focused on solar occultation* 3
measurements from a balloon thatwent up into the stratosphere. I had

the chance to work with the UV/visible
spectrometers of the Heidelberg group
and Prof. Claude Camy-Peyret’s infrared
Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS).
At the time, I participated in several
ballooning campaigns for example
in the Arctic and in tropical Brazil.
The goal was to learn more about
stratospheric photochemistry and how
much of ozone destroying halogens aretransported up there. The campaigns at
Brazil were particularly interesting since
the tropical tropopause is the region
which all the molecules have to go
through to get into the stratosphere. Of
course, Brazil is an interesting place tovisit anyway. In 2006, I got my Ph.D. as abi-national degree from the universities
at Heidelberg and Paris. Afterwards,
I joined the Netherlands Institute forSpace Research – SRON to work on
satellite remote sensing. This was thetime when I started working on radiativetransfer and greenhouse gases.
N: So you were a member of Prof. Ilse
Aben’s group?
B: Yes, exactly. Her group started
developing the RemoTeC algorithm
which is also the backbone of mycurrent work - now, that I am back toGermany, at the Karlsruhe Institute*1 The shifting and splitting of spectral lines of atoms and molecules
due to presence of an external electric field.
*2 Please refer to “IBUKI ’s PI Interview” in GOSAT Newsletter #28 ( http://
www.gosat.nies.go.jp/eng/newsletter/newsletter28e.pdf#page=6 ).
*3 Solar occultation technique is to observe sunlight directly thatof Technology. I got funding fromthe German government to set up asmall research group. In Germany, wecall this a “young investigator group”.
As you know, we continue working
on greenhouse gas retrievals fromGOSAT, but we also work on inverse
modeling and on developing groundbased instrument. Next year, we hope
to conduct a measurement campaign
with a newly developed ground-based
spectrometer.
N: What is the purpose RemoTeC has
been developed for?
B: The primary purpose was to develop
a retrieval method that can achieve theaccuracy that is required for making
remote sensing of greenhouse gas
concentrations a useful tool. In the end,
we want to gain insight into the carbon
cycle processes.
N: Greenhouse gases --- not specificsensors or satellites?
B: Well, when developing RemoTeC,
we had in mind that GOSAT and OCO*4
satellites would be the first satellites
the algorithm could be applied to. But,
we tried to keep RemoTeC as flexible
as possible such that it would be easy
to adapt the code to other satellites. In

comes through the atmosphere each time a satellite makes an orbit. On
the other hand, IBUKI employs a nadir-looking method, which observes
sunlight reflected on the ground or the direct light coming from the
Earth by pointing downward on the ground. Please refer to:
http://www.gosat.nies.go.jp/eng/newsletter/newsletter15e.pdf#page=7 .
)5­­NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#30 MAR. 2014

the beginning we did some test withSCIAMACHY* 5 data, but we quickly
moved to OCO and GOSAT, in particularsince there were already several
algorithms available for SCIAMACHY.
N: What about the future CarbonSat*6 orother missions?
B: Of course, we would be happy to
run RemoTeC on GOSAT-2*7, OCO-2, orCarbonSat observations. RemoTeC – ora variant of RemoTeC – will probably
become the processor for methane
retrievals from the European Sentinel-5
Precursor*8 mission to be launched inabout 2 years.
N: Have you been at SRON at the sametime as Dr. Christian Frankenberg*9?
B: I worked at SRON from 2007 to 2011
and, indeed, had several years overlap
with Christian. Christian essentially
focused on the proxy method* 10 formethane and water isotopologues, andI developed the full-physics*11 method
RemoTeC. We were interacting a lot. So,
quite some pieces of code in RemoTeC
probably originate in some way or
the other from work that Christian
had done for SCIAMACHY. We werealso collaborating on the water andmethane spectroscopy in the 1.65 µm
band. If I remember correctly, we useda precursor of the current RemoTeC
algorithm to run retrievals fromground-based FTS spectra to test the
spectroscopic updates Christian needed
for SCIAMACHY.
N: You explained, that Dr. Otto
Hasekamp and you were jointly
developing RemoTeC. How did you
share the work?
B: When I was at SRON, Otto was mysupervisor. He was largely responsiblefor developing the radiative transfer

code that is now the heart of RemoTeC.
My job was to set up the interface to theradiative transfer module, to take care of
the logistics and all the details that are
required to make an algorithm work forreal measurements. Running simulationsand validating the code with TCCON
spectra was also a large part of my work.
For example, we developed a kind oforbit simulator which we can now apply
to future missions such as the Sentinel-5
or its precursor.
N: Now you are also a member of theACOS*12 team.
B: Actually, I am not a member of the
ACOS team. But I am a member of the
OCO-2 science team. The reason why I’
m interested in satellite remote sensingof greenhouse gases is that, first ofall, it is a very challenging subject. In
order to achieve the required accuracy,
the retrieval methods must be very
sophisticated and take into accountphysical processes that typically are
neglected for other applications. For
example, simultaneously retrieving
aerosols and greenhouse gas
concentrations needs state-of-theart input from the radiative transfer,
spectroscopy, and the trace gas retrieval
communities. The other very interesting
aspect of our work is of course thechance to learn more about climatechange. In that sense, pushing theaccuracy of our carbon dioxide andmethane measurements could in theend lead to a better understanding of
the climate system and how to deal bestwith climate change.
N: Are you mainly interested in thespecies carbon dioxide and methane?
B: Currently, these are my maininterests. But during my Ph.D. I mostly
worked on short-lived substances such

*4 Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) is one of the missions of Earth
System Science Pathfinder Project in NASA, USA, a satellite dedicated to
studying atmospheric CO2. The launch of OCO-1 unfortunately failed in
February, 2009, however, its successor OCO-2 has been developed byNASA and is waiting for the launch scheduled in July, 2014.
*5 SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric
CHartographY is the sensor mounted on the ESA satellite Envisat, which
was in operation from March 2002 to April 2012.
*6 Carbon Monitoring Satellite is planned and led mainly by Bremen
University in the ESA's Earth exploration project, targeting at global
observation of CO2 and CH4 concentrations, to be launched in 2018.
*7 Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite-2 is the successor to the
GOSAT and scheduled for launch in early 2018.

as ozone and halogen oxides. I would
also be interested in remote sensing ofaerosol and cloud properties.
N: Do you have any plan to apply yourretrieval also to the thermal infrared orother spectral regions?
B: So far, we focus on the SWIR. But,
we have plans to combine SWIR and
TIR radiances to gain vertical profile
information. This would help thesource/sink inversion a lot. Combining
the SWIR and TIR requires quite somealgorithm development on our side.
Therefore, it will take a while until we
can claim a success. There are also someideas around for new satellite missions
covering both, the SWIR and the TIR. So,
it would be great to show with GOSAT
that the idea works.
N: Especially for methane profile
information?
B: Yes, methane would be the first target
since it appears an easier target thancarbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is often
used for temperature retrieval in the TIR.
If we want to retrieve its concentration,
we would first need to come up with analternative for the temperature retrieval.
N: What do you think about the present
status of the GOSAT project?
B: I think, it is an excellent project. The
satellite is operational and delivers
high-quality data for more than 4
years, which is a great achievement byitself. The GOSAT team has a very open
attitude which makes international
collaboration possible. I think, this isreally key to the great success of GOSAT
so far. Personally, I like interactingwith the level 1 and level 2* 14 teams.
It is always interesting to learn aboutsome instrument detail that makes theperformance of our algorithm better*8 Sentinel-5 Precursor is a satellite specialized in atmosphericobservation to be launched in 2015 as part of ESA’s Sentinel project,which is aiming at multisatellite observation of land, ocean, andatmosphere.
*9 Please refer to “IBUKI ’s PI Interview” in GOSAT Newsletter #4 ( http://
www.gosat.nies.go.jp/eng/newsletter/newsletter04e.pdf#page=3 ).
*10 Please see "AHA! OF THE MONTH" on next page.
*11 Please see "AHA! OF THE MONTH" on next page.
*12 Atmospheric CO 2 Observations from Space team is a grouporganized around OCO (Orbiting Carbon Observatory) science team
involving researchers of JPL*13, Caltech, and Colorado State University.
*13 Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research anddevelopment center and operated by Caltech for NASA.

6­­

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#30 MAR. 2014

or worse. Our algorithm development
benefits a lot from the discussion withthe level 1 team. On the other, I thinkthat also the level 1 developments
benefit from sensitivity studies we doon the level 2 side.
N: What is it that made you movefrom pure physics into the field ofgreenhouse gas measurements?
B: Satellite remote sensing ofgreenhouse gases is an interesting
physics problem. Radiative transfer
theory and spectroscopic theory are
actually quite on the theoretical sideof physics problems. But then, it is not
only about theory. Rather, we develop
physical models that actually fit realworld measurements. And, our results
even have some societal impact. I likeworking on problems where one canchoose to focus more on the theoreticalor the experimental aspects.

extend the carbon dioxide and methane
records from GOSAT into the future tohave considerable overlap with OCO2 and the Sentinel-5 precursor. Seeing
the success of GOSAT, I would thinkthat GOSAT-2 should try to preserve
the key qualities and to improve onsome deficient aspects. GOSAT’s key
quality is that it is a Fourier Transform
Spectrometer with wide spectral
coverage and good spectral resolution.
Simultaneously covering the shortwave
and the thermal infrared is for example
quite a unique feature. It would be great
if GOSAT-2 covers the carbon monoxideband at 2.3 µm. Carbon monoxide could
be a tracer of certain source processes. If
the calibration and performance of the

instrument is sufficiently good, GOSAT-2
could then exploit vertical profilingcapabilities for carbon dioxide andmethane and source correlation withcarbon monoxide.
N: Thank you for your time. Do you
often visit Japan?
B: Well, quite often recently. It’s my
4th time. The 1st time was when the
IWGGMS and the RA PI meeting*15 were
held at Kyoto. Since then, I have been to
Tokyo and Yokohama. I like the people
and the country and I always enjoy
coming here.
N: Thank you for coming.
B: Thank you.

N: What is the expectation andrecommendation to the future GOSAT
or GOSAT-2 projects?
B: Well, for GOSAT, I would hope thatthe mission and our collaboration with
the GOSAT team will continue for along time. It would be really great to*14 Level 1 is radiance spectral data obtained from observed*15 Please refer to “IWGGMS-6 Report” and “The 2nd GOSAT RA PI

from radiance spectral data. For more detail, please refer to:

eng/newsletter/newsletter02e.pdf#page=3 ).

interferogram data, and level 2 is column abundance data retrieved

Meeting Report” in GOSAT Newsletter #2 ( http://www.gosat.nies.go.jp/

http://www.gosat.nies.go.jp/eng/GOSAT_pamphlet_en.pdf#page=7.
)

SMALL AHA! OF THE MONTH

Proxy Method and Full-Physics Method

Yukio Yoshida, Senior Researcher, Satellite Remote Sensing Research Section, CGER, NIES
The greatest uncertainty in retrieving GHGs from satellite
SWIR observation is the modification of optical path length(hereafter the Modification) scattered by clouds/aerosols(hereafter C/A). For example, the length is shortened when
the scattered sunlight reaches the satellite before arrivingon the ground, or lengthened when scattered repeatedly by
the ground and C/A. The degree of the Modification depends
not only on the altitude/type/amount of C/A but also ground
albedo and wavelength of the observed light. It’s difficult toevaluate and eliminate the Modification effect properly.
The Modification’s dependence on wavelength is not sogreat to change itself within narrow wavelength range: itremains almost the same. Proxy method applies this fact toeliminate the Modification’s effect using another gas (proxy)
as “evaluator”. However, it is required: (1) absorption bandof both the target and proxy gases to be within a narrow

wavelength range, (2) independent proxy gas’s concentration
data (e.g., model calculation data) to be ready as the
Modification evaluation index. The method enables us tocorrect almost all the Modification effect, including a marginof error in the index concentration data, on the other hand,
attributable to the model, etc.
Full-Physics method handles explicitly detailed informationof C/A type/amount, its altitude distribution, etc. “FullPhysics” is named because the method calculates scattering
properties and spectra affected by the Modification basedon physical quantities which describe C/A, and use thecalculation results in analysis. However there is wide variety of
C/A, which requires quite a lot of parameters to describe thewhole exactly to make some assumptions and simplifications
inevitable in analysis, triggering error causes caused by thedeviations from truth.

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NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#30 MAR. 2014

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 March 24, 2014

FTS L1B data■■

● 150151 1,258,200 scenes● 160160 267,200 scenes● 161160 1,527,900 scenes■
FTS L2 CO2 column amount  (SWIR)● 02.11● 02.20● 02.21343,600 scans
64,500 scans
346,200 scans■

FTS L2 CH4 column amount (SWIR)● 02.11● 02.20● 02.21343,800 scans
64,600 scans
346,500 scans■
FTS L2 CO2 profile (TIR)FTS L2 CH4 profile (TIR)● 00.01

204,800 scans● 00.01

206,400 scans■

CAI L1B data

● 01.00

824,900 frames■

CAI L1B+ data

● 01.00

824,500 frames■

CAI L2 cloud flag

● 01.00
CAI L3 global radiance distribution● 01.00

rences● 01.00
CAI L3 NDVI

L4A global CO2 flux■
● 02.02

L4B global CO2 distribution

17,850 rectangles
2yr. 5mo.

■● 02.02
2009/                            2010/                                     2011/                                     2012/                                     2013/                                     2014/4     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      8    10    12    2     4and L4B global CO2 distribution were released in updated V02.02. For
details of change, please refer to "Important Notes at Releasing" in"ATBD, Product Format Descriptions, Product Description, Results of

595 months■● 01.00

and V02.01 were released on September 26, 2013, at present for theperiod from January 2010 to January, 2014. Also L4A global CO2 flux

1,813 recur-■

CAI L3 global reflectance distribution

The chart above is as of March 24, 2014. The latest processed
and released on are: FTS L1B in updated V161.160; CAI L1B/L1B+/
L2 cloud flag/L3 global radiance and reflectance distribution, and
NDVI in V01.00. FTS L2 CO2/CH4 column amount (SWIR) in V02.20

823,200 frames■■

2yr. 5mo.

■← Observ. Period

Validation" in GUIG.
Provision of FTS SWIR L3 (V01.XX) generated from old L2 product(V01.XX) was stopped. Its new version V02.XX FTS SWIR L3 is now
under preparation, however, you can preview V02.11 global column
averaged distribution in GUIG gallery.
Please see new additions on the gallery from GUIG top, "Monthly
Global Map of the H2O column-averaged volume mixing ratios", " The
Images of the Earth captured by IBUKI ", and "Global NDVI Map."
The number of registered users is 1649 as of March 24, 2014.

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NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#30 MAR. 2014

PUBLISHED PAPERS
Field of Research: carbon balance estimation, atmospheric			transport models
Name of Journal: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
		(Volume 13, pages 8695–8717, 2013)
Title:	Global CO2 fluxes estimated from GOSAT retrievals of total
column CO2
Authors: 	S. Basu, S. Guerlet, A. Butz, S. Houweling, O. Hasekamp,
I. Aben, P. Krummel, P. Steele, R. Langenfelds, M. Torn, S.
Biraud, B. Stephens, A. Andrews, D. Worthy

Authors: 	M. Inoue, I. Morino, O. Uchino, Y. Miyamoto, Y. Yoshida, T.
Yokota, T. Machida, Y. Sawa, H. Matsueda, C. Sweeney, P. P.
Tans, A. E. Andrews, S. C. Biraud, T. Tanaka, S. Kawakami, P. K.
Patra
Field of Research: algorithm
Name of Journal: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques		(Volume 6, pages 2851–2864, 2013)
Title:	Semi-autonomous sounding selection for OCO-2
Authors: 	L. Mandrake, C. Frankenberg, C. W. O’Dell, G. Osterman, P.
Wennberg, D. Wunch

Field of Research: algorithm, validation
Name of Journal: Scientific Online Letters on the Atmosphere		(Volume 9, pages 143-147, 2013)
Title:	Atmospheric Temperature and Water Vapor Retrievals fromGOSAT Thermal Infrared Spectra and Initial Validation with
Coincident Radiosonde Measurements
Authors: 	H. Ohyama, S. Kawakami, K. Shiomi, I. Morino, O. Uchino

Field of Research: calibration
Name of Journal: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote			Sensing		(Volume 51, pages 5199–5209, 2013)
Title:	Testing the Polarization Model for TANSO-FTS on GOSAT
Against Clear-Sky Observations of Sun Glint Over the Ocean
Authors: 	D. M. O’Brien, I. Polonsky, C. O’Dell, A. Kuze, N. Kikuchi, Y.
Yoshida, V. Natraj

Field of Research: atmospheric transport models
Name of Journal: Journal of Geophysical Research		(Volume 118, pages 10140–10154, 2013)
Title:	Background error covariance estimation for atmospheric
CO2 data assimilation
Authors:	A. Chatterjee, R. J. Engelen, S. R. Kawa, C. Sweeney, A. M.
Michalak

Field of Research: algorithm
Name of Journal: Journal of Geophysical Research		(Volume 118, pages 13520–13531, 2013)
Title:	N e w a p p r o a c h e s to r e m ov i n g c l o u d s h a d ow s a n devaluating the 380nm surface reflectance for improved
aerosol optical thickness retrievals from the GOSAT/TANSOCloud and Aerosol Imager
Authors: S . Fukuda, T. Nakajima, H. Takenaka, A. Higurashi, N.
Kikuchi, T. Y. Nakajima, H. Ishida

Field of Research: carbon balance estimation, atmospheric			transport models
Name of Journal: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
		(Volume 13, pages 9351–9373, 2013)
Title:	Regional CO2 flux estimates for 2009–2010 based on GOSAT
and ground-based CO2 observations
Authors:	S. Maksyutov, H. Takagi, V. K. Valsala, M. Saito, T. Oda, T.
Saeki, D. A. Belikov, R. Saito, A. Ito, Y. Yoshida, I. Morino, O.
Uchino, R. J. Andres, T. Yokota

Field of Research: calibration
Name of Journal: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote			Sensing		(Volume 52, pages 89–105, 2014)
Title:
T IR Spectral Radiance Calibration of the GOSAT Satellite
Borne TANSO-FTS With the Aircraft-Based S-HIS and theGround-Based S-AERI at the Railroad Valley Desert Playa
Authors: 	F. Kataoka, R. O. Knuteson, A. Kuze, H. Suto, K. Shiomi, M.
Harada, E. M. Garms, J. A. Roman, D. C. Tobin, J. K. Taylor, H.
E. Revercomb, N. Sekio, R. Higuchi, Y. Mitomi

Field of Research: data application
Name of Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
		(Volume 40, pages 4971–4976, 2013)
Title:	Toward anthropogenic combustion emission constraints
from space-based analysis of urban CO2 /CO sensitivity
Authors: S. J. Silva, A. F. Arellano, H. M. Worden

Field of Research: carbon balance estimation, atmospheric			transport models
Name of Journal: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
		(Volume 14, pages 577–592, 2014)
Title:	On the consistency between global and regional methane
emissions inferred from SCIAMACHY, TANSO-FTS, IASI andsurface measurements
Authors:	C. Cressot, F. Chevallier, P. Bousquet, C. Crevoisier,E. J.
Dlugokencky, A. Fortems-Cheiney, C. Frankenberg, R.
Parker, I. Pison, R. A. Scheepmaker, S. A. Montzka, P. B.
Krummel, L. P. Steele, R. L. Langenfelds

Field of Research: data application
Name of Journal: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
		(Volume 13, pages 9447–9459, 2013)
Title:	The covariation of Northern Hemisphere summertime CO2
with surface temperature in boreal regions
Authors: 	D. Wunch, P. O. Wennberg, J. Messerschmidt, N. C. Parazoo,
G. C. Toon, N. M. Deutscher, G. Keppel-Aleks, C. M. Roehl, J.
T. Randerson, T. Warneke, J. Notholt
Field of Research: calibration, algorithm
Name of Journal: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques		(Volume 6, pages 2509–2520, 2013)
Title:	Using ocean-glint scattered sunlight as a diagnostic tool forsatellite remote sensing of greenhouse gases
Authors: A. Butz, S. Guerlet, O. P. Hasekamp, A. Kuze, H. Suto

Field of Research: carbon balance estimation, atmospheric			transport models
Name of Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
		(Volume 41, pages 1065–1070, 2014)
Title:
Toward robust and consistent regional CO2 flux estimatesfrom in situ and spaceborne measurements of atmospheric
CO2
Authors:	F. Chevallier, P. I. Palmer, L. Feng, H. Boesch, C. W. O’Dell, P.
Bousquet(continued to next page)

Field of Research: validation
Name of Journal: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
		(Volume 13, pages 9771-9788, 2013)
Title:	Validation of XCO 2 derived from SWIR spectra of GOSATTANSO-FTS with aircraft measurement data

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NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTER ISSUE#30 MAR. 2014

Field of Research: calibration
Name of Journal: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote			Sensing		(Volume 52, pages 3991–4004, 2014)
Title:	Long-Term Vicarious Calibration of GOSAT Short-Wave
Sensors: Techniques for Error Reduction and New Estimatesof Radiometric Degradation Factors

Authors: A . Kuze, T. E. Taylor, F. Kataoka, C. J. Bruegge, D. Crisp, M.
Harada, M. Helmlinger, M. Inoue, S. Kawakami, N. Kikuchi, Y.
Mitomi, J. Murooka, M. Naitoh, D. M. O’Brien, C. W. O’Dell, H.
Ohyama, H. Pollock, F. M. Schwandner, K. Shiomi, H. Suto, T.
Takeda, T. Tanaka, T. Urabe, T. Yokota, Y. Yoshida

NEWS GOSAT Mission Operation Extended after Nominal Lifetime
T. Yokota, Leader, GOSAT Project, Center for Global Environmental Research, NIESThe Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) IBUKI ,launched on January 23, 2009, has completed its 5 years’

nominal operation as planned. For 3 months after launch, it

was in initial operation for functional checkout of each partof the satellite and test of sensors, and in the meantime thefirst light data were acquired by TANSO-FTS (the Thermal And
Near-infrared Sensor for carbon Observation – the Fourier

Transform Spectrometer) and TANSO-CAI (the Cloud andAerosol Imager) on February 7, 2009*1 . After initial calibrationand validation, nominal operation started on September,2009 , and observation data have been acquired almost
continuously since June, 2009.

The three parties, JAXA, NIES, and MOE held a meeting toreview the nominal operation results of GOSAT at TsukubaSpace Center, JAXA on February 14, 2014, where reported
were statuses of the satellite and sensors’ functions during thenominal operation, data processing and provision, release ofscientific outcomes using GOSAT data, and achievement of

ANNOUNCEMENT

success criteria defined by the Space Development Committee
at the initial stage of GOSAT project.

The outcomes during the nominal operation were also

reported by the three parties at the 14th Space Development
and Utilization Working Group in MEXT on February 24, 2014.

Now IBUKI is in extended mission stage after nominal

operation and is expected to remain operable long as far as

power generation capacity and the amount of fuel left for

attitude control are concerned, as no particular trouble has
been found with the satellite itself and sensors until now.

Without any big change in JAXA’s ground system for tracking/controlling the satellite and data reception/processing and

NIES’ higher level data processing/provision, IBUKI ’s data
products will continue to be processed (/reprocessed asneeded) and provided as ever as funding permits.

*1 http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2009/02/20090209_ibuki_e.html

GOSAT Newsletter to Be Closed

As described above, GOSAT has accomplished its 5 years'

nominal operation. At this opportunity, we public relations
team reviewed our past activities and found it necessary

to reorganize them for more people to recognize GOSAT's

needed, various events, etc., enhancing pamphlets and leafletsat the same time. Please have continued interest on GOSAT
project.

Our dear scientists, thank you for your professional writings

mission, its products, and outcomes of researches all over theand proof readings; our dear readers, thank you for your"GOSAT Newsletter" is to be closed with this issue #30 and(S. Aikawa)world.

continued support on GOSAT Newsletter.

we are going to move on to information provision via WEB as

NIES GOSAT PROJECT NEWSLETTERISSUE #30 MARCH 2014

Issued on : 2014/4/8

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

If you would like to receive an email notiﬁcation when each issue is published,address：16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba-City, Ibaraki,

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

305-8506 Japanand preferred language (English or Japanese) at:

GOSAT Project Oﬃce

gosat_newsletter@nies.go.jp

Center for Global Environmental Research
National Institute for Environmental Studies

10­­

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