Project Details
Projekt
MAMAP-2D for CoMet 2.0 - Imaging atmospheric CO2 and CH4 distributions with passive remote sensing
Applicant
Dr. Heinrich Bovensmann
Subject Area
Atmospheric Science
Term
from 2020 to 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 442831673
The main objective of the proposal “MAMAP-2D for COMET 2.0” is to contribute with imaging CH4 and CO2 data acquired by the new airborne sensor MAMAP-2D to the HALO COMET 2.0 mission research questions. These research questions focus on arctic and tropical wetland CH4 emissions and how they compare to emissions from natural geological sources (seeps), waste, and biomass burning as well as fossil fuel exploration and production in those areas. The science questions will be addressed by flying an innovative and unique suit of sensors on the research aircraft HALO to collect new data sets in the regions critical for wetland emissions, and confront them with model data as out lined in the umbrella proposal [Fix et al. 2019]. The specific contribution of the University of Bremen is the deployment of the new imaging sensor for CH4 (and CO2) – MAMAP- 2D – together with the COMET sensor suit on HALO. MAMAP-2D will allow high resolution imaging (~125 m spatial resolution, ~ 4 km across track swath) of atmospheric distributions of the background normalized dry column concentrations of CH4 and CO2 with high precision. Due to the unique payload combination of active and passive remote sensing of CH4, with COMET 2.0 it can be tested for the first time how far emissions from extended wetlands are quantifiable using such techniques. Another aim of the COMET 2.0 campaign will be the assessment of anthropogenic emissions from fossil fuel production sites and/or landfills and/or natural geological sources (seeps) or biomass burning embedded in or surrounding arctic and tropical wetlands. Here the new imaging capabilities of MAMAP-2D will allow imaging of such areas with 125 m spatial resolution and approx. 4 km across track swath (assuming a flight height of approx. 8 km). This will allow the identification of point sources from fossil fuel production sites and identification of single emitters such as leakages across these sites. To achieve the measurement goals two campaigns are planned to be executed. One in summer 2022 in the Canadian Artic covering major arctic wetlands like the Hudson Bay Lowlands or the Mackenzie River Basin as well as “nearby” oil and gas production areas like the Bakken shale or the Athabsca Oil Sands. The second part of COMET 2.0 is envisioned to be executed in spring 2023 in tropical South America covering major tropical wetlands like the Amazon Basin or the Pantanal, as well as “nearby” anthropogenic targets (oil/gas in Venezuela etc.). The proposed activity covers both campaigns as well as the preparatory activities at University of Bremen including the certification of MAMAP-2D for HALO and data assurance and evaluation of the collected data sets. The data will be used together with the modelling groups in the COMET 2.0 consortium to improve emission estimates for the regions and targets mentioned above. As under flights of satellites (S-5P, GOSAT-2 etc) are also planned, the activity will contribute also to satellite validation.
DFG Programme
Infrastructure Priority Programmes
