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Seasonal and inter-annual variability of atmosphere CO2 based on NOAA Carbon Tracker analysis and satellite observations

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Abstract

A study on seasonal and inter-annual variability of the atmospheric CO2 is carried out based on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Carbon Tracker (NOAACT) re-analysis and satellite measurements of mid-troposphere CO2 by Atmosphere Infrared Sounder on board NASA’s Aqua and lower troposphere CO2 by Greenhouse-gas Observing Satellite. Seasonal and non-seasonal components of each time series were extracted by means of least square based harmonic analysis procedure. The data of surface CO2 fluxes used in the NOAACT are also analyzed to examine its relationship with the atmosphere CO2 variability at different time scales. There exists good consistency between NOAACT analysis and satellite observations in their respective seasonal harmonics and climatology. Surface layer CO2 exhibits large climatological mean over the regions of major anthropogenic sources together with strong seasonal cycle over the humid and cold climatic terrestrial regions especially over the northern hemisphere. Existence of high coherency with the different components of the surface fluxes shows that surface layer atmosphere CO2 seasonality is primarily contributed from the terrestrial ecosystem exchanges and secondarily by anthropogenic and oceanic exchanges. The mid-troposphere CO2 exhibits large values associated with climatology and amplitudes of semi-annual and annual cycles over the northern extra tropics and Polar Regions along with a gradual decreasing trend from northern to southern hemisphere. Inter-annual variability of atmospheric CO2 in the NOAACT in some extent is consistent with the satellite observations. Large scale circulation patterns, its fluctuations associated with ENSO events and large scale ecosystem disturbances have significant influence on the inter-annual variability.

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Acknowledgements

This research work is carried out as part of National Carbon Project, ISRO-Geosphere Biosphere Programme. We are very thankful to AIRS team at NASA, GOSAT team at JAXA, and NOAACT for providing the data for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Remote Sensing Centre (ISRO), Hyderabad, 500625, India

    M. Krishnapriya, A. Bhuvana Chandra, Rabindra K. Nayak & P. V. N. Rao

  2. Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (ISRO), Dehradun, 248001, India

    N. R. Patel

  3. Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Trivandrum, 695547, India

    V. K. Dadhwal

Authors
  1. M. Krishnapriya
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  2. A. Bhuvana Chandra
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  3. Rabindra K. Nayak
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  4. N. R. Patel
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  5. P. V. N. Rao
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  6. V. K. Dadhwal
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Correspondence to Rabindra K. Nayak.

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Krishnapriya, M., Chandra, A.B., Nayak, R.K. et al. Seasonal and inter-annual variability of atmosphere CO2 based on NOAA Carbon Tracker analysis and satellite observations. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 46, 309–320 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12524-017-0688-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12524-017-0688-4

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