The scientific goal of the Micro Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites (μMAPS) project is to measure carbon monoxide (CO) mixing ratios in the middle troposphere from an airborne platform. Recent work has focused the development of a data processing algorithm to determine precise scientific total column amounts of carbon monoxide from μMAPS flights onboard Proteus in 2004. In this paper, the development of the current data reduction procedure for CO retrieval is presented. The μMAPS calibration data and the various radiative transfer models, both vital steps in CO retrieval, are discussed. The retrieval algorithm is applied to the July 22, 2004 flight (which occurred during the INTEX-NA campaign) over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of North America. Sea surface temperature and preliminary CO total column and mixing ratio calculations from this flight are presented and compared with retrievals from DACOM and AIRS – other CO-measuring instruments.

The scientific goal of the Micro Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites (MicroMAPS) project is to measure Carbon Monoxide (CO) mixing ratios in the middle troposphere from an airborne platform. During June and July 2004, MicroMAPS flew aboard the Proteus aircraft over the southern California and the mid Atlantic coasts. In order to continue with retrieval of data from these flights, the flight conditions and instrument functionality must be examined. An engineering assessment of the MicroMAPS instrument performance based on data collected from both laboratory tests and airborne flights is presented. Information from this analysis is used to calculate the averaging kernel for the Proteus flight and MicroMAPS instrument conditions. The MicroMAPS averaging kernel is then applied to in situ data to produce simulated MicroMAPS total column CO mixing ratio data for flights over the Pacific. Data retrieval calculations and methods are briefly discussed.

The ultimate goal of MicroMaps is to detect CO and N2O from an orbital platform. The instrument is equipped with CO and N2O gas cells configured to observe the earth's IR radiance in a band centered at 4.67 microns. Utilizing these gas cells in a selective chopper, the instrument produces its signal by forming the difference between the incoming energy as seen though one of the gas cells and a second cell that is either evacuated or contains a non-absorbing gas. From the chopper the beams are directed to a detector where they are electronically differenced. The resulting signals will be used with preand postflight calibration for data reduction. A test flight for MicroMAPS is planned on the Proteus aircraft. To prepare for this flight a full-scale theoretical model of the data Proteus is expected to obtain is produced. This model includes total upwelling radiance of the earth in the wavenumber range of 2080cm to 2280cm, transmission of the earth’s radiance through the optical window, the band pass filter, and the optical chopper which includes transmission through and emission of the gas in the gas cells. The model produces 5 K increments in the range of 280.15K to 310.15K for the blackbody source. Each source temperature includes a model of instrument temperatures with the same range. This upwelling radiance vs. wavenumber data is then integrated over wavenumber for all the temperatures to give us a theoretical model of total radiance vs. temperature of the target for multiple instrument temperatures. The atmospheric radiance was obtained using Line By Line Radiative Transfer Model (LBLRTM) with the HITRAN 1992 database. Gas cell transmissions were obtained via HITRANPC, which uses the same database. For comparison, the atmospheric radiance was also generated using HITRAN 1996 with LBLRTM and using HITRAN 2000 with an independent program written in MATLAB with the GENSPECT toolbox. This theoretical model will be used in conjunction with preflight calibration data to give a theoretical prediction of CO concentration. Once the Proteus flies, the postflight calibration data will be used to reduce the in-flight difference signals. This result will be compared with the predictions of CO concentrations based on theoretical models.

The scientific goal of the Micro Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites ( MAPS) project is to measure carbon monoxide (CO) mixing ratios in the middle troposphere from an airborne platform. Recent work has focused on the development of a data processing algorithm to determine precise scientific total column amounts of carbon monoxide from MAPS flights. The data processing algorithm uses flight signals to infer surface temperature then uses the inferred surface temperature in calculating CO mixing ratios. In this paper, the sensitivity of this data processing algorithm to surface temperature is studied. MicroMAPS data is used from Proteus flights over the mid- Atlantic and South Pacific. Synthetic and measured surface temperature profiles are used to calculate CO mixing ratios with the MAPS data retrieval algorithm. These results are compared to determine the sensitivity of the CO retrieval algorithm in different climates.