GOME, SCIAMACHY and OMI
In an ongoing collaboration with Kelly Chance and his group (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and with Folkert Wittrock (University of Bremen) we analyze column observations of formaldehyde, NO₂ and tropospheric O₃ from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME), SCIAMACHY and the Ozone Monitoring Experiment (OMI) [1-9]. Our collaborative work is the first to fully exploit column observations of formaldehyde as constraints on biogenic VOC emissions. We are also assessing CO₂ column measurements from SCIAMACHY.

TES
The Aura spacecraft, launched in July 2004, is the first mission dedicated to understanding atmospheric composition. The Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) is a key instrument aboard Aura that observes a range of tropospheric gases. In collaboration with the TES group at JPL we are investigating the potential of these data, together with other instruments aboard Aura, to improve understanding of biomass burning emissions and how they affect tropospheric ozone.

OCO and GOSAT
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory and the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite, both due for launch in 2008, are designed to measure column CO₂ to 1ppm precision. Liang Feng is developing an assimilation framework to use these data for source/sink estimation.

MODIS and MISR
The MODIS and MISR instruments provide a wide range of environmental information, including aerosol optical properties, cloud optical properties, ocean color (a proxy for marine biomass [10]), sea-surface temperature, and land cover characteristics. Claire Bulgin has been using the GRAPE aerosol and cloud dataset to investigate the Twomey indirect effect. We are also preparing assimilation experiments to test model descriptions of aerosol processes.