AbstractThe Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) mission was selected by NASA's Office of Earth Science as the fifth mission in its Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) Program. OCO will make the first global, space-based measurements of atmospheric CO2 with the precision, resolution, and coverage needed to characterize sources and sinks of this important green-house gas. These measurements will improve our ability to forecast CO2-induced climate change. OCO will fly in a 1:15 PM sun-synchronous orbit, sharing its ground track with the Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua platform. It will carry high-resolution spectrometers to measure reflected sunlight in the molecular oxygen (O2) A-band at 0.76 μ m and the CO2 bands at 1.61 and 2.06 μ m to retrieve the column-averaged CO2 dry air mole fraction, X CO 2 . A comprehensive validation and correlative measurement program has been incorporated into this mission to ensure that X CO 2 can be retrieved with precisions of 0.3% (1ppm) on regional scales.


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    Title :

    The orbiting carbon observatory mission


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Acta Astronautica ; 56 , 1-2 ; 193-197


    Publication date :

    2004-01-01


    Size :

    5 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



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