Abstract
Space-borne measurements of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations provide global observation constraints for top-down estimates of surface carbon flux. Here, the first estimates of the global distribution of carbon surface fluxes inferred from dry-air CO2 column (XCO2) measurements by the Chinese Global Carbon Dioxide Monitoring Scientific Experimental Satellite (TanSat) are presented. An ensemble transform Kalman filter (ETKF) data assimilation system coupled with the GEOS-Chem global chemistry transport model is used to optimally fit model simulations with the TanSat XCO2 observations, which were retrieved using the Institute of Atmospheric Physics Carbon dioxide retrieval Algorithm for Satellite remote sensing (IAPCAS). High posterior error reduction (30%–50%) compared with a priori fluxes indicates that assimilating satellite XCO2 measurements provides highly effective constraints on global carbon flux estimation. Their impacts are also highlighted by significant spatiotemporal shifts in flux patterns over regions critical to the global carbon budget, such as tropical South America and China. An integrated global land carbon net flux of 6.71 ± 0.76 Gt C yr−1 over 12 months (May 2017–April 2018) is estimated from the TanSat XCO2 data, which is generally consistent with other inversions based on satellite data, such as the JAXA GOSAT and NASA OCO-2 XCO2 retrievals. However, discrepancies were found in some regional flux estimates, particularly over the Southern Hemisphere, where there may still be uncorrected bias between satellite measurements due to the lack of independent reference observations. The results of this study provide the groundwork for further studies using current or future TanSat XCO2 data together with other surface-based and space-borne measurements to quantify biosphere-atmosphere carbon exchange.
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Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFA0600203), the Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ZDRW-ZS-2019-1), the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFB0504000), and the Youth Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41905029). Liang FENG is supported by the UK NERC National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO). The TanSat L1B data service is provided by IRCSD and CASA (131211KYSB20180002). We also thank the FENGYUN Satellite Data Center of the National Satellite Meteorological Center, who provided the TanSat L1B data service. The authors thank the TanSat mission and highly appreciate the support from everyone involved.
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Yang, D., Liu, Y., Feng, L. et al. The First Global Carbon Dioxide Flux Map Derived from TanSat Measurements. Adv. Atmos. Sci. 38, 1433–1443 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-021-1179-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-021-1179-7