A Channel Selection Method for CO 2 Retrieval Using Information Content Analysis Le Kuai 1, Vijay Natraj 1, Run-Lie Shia 1, Charles Miller 2, Yuk Yung 1 1. Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology 2. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology Abstract A major challenge in retrieving the CO 2 concentrations from thermal infrared remote sensing comes from the fact that measurements in the 4.3 and 15 μm absorption bands (AIRS or TES) are sensitive to both temperature and CO 2 variations. This complicates the selection of absorption channels with maximum CO 2 concentration information content. In contrast, retrievals using near infrared (NIR) CO 2 absorption bands are relatively insensitive to temperature and are most sensitive to changes of CO 2 near the surface, where the sources and sinks are located. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) was built to measure reflected sunlight in three NIR spectral regions (the 0.76 μm O2 A-band and two CO 2 bands at 1.61 and 2.06 μm). In an effort to significantly increase the speed of accurate CO 2 retrieval algorithms for OCO, we performed an information content analysis to identify the 20 best channels from each CO 2 spectral region to use in OCO retrievals. Retrievals using these 40 channels provide as much as 75% of the total CO2 information content compared to retrievals using all 1016 channels in each CO 2 spectral region. The CO 2 retrievals using our selected channels have a precision better than 0.1 ppm. This technique is general and equally applicable to the retrieval of other geophysical variables (e.g. temperature or CH 4 ), or modified for other instruments, such as AIRS or TES. Definition of information content (H) and degree of freedom (d s ) Future work The reduced-channel retrieval of CO 2 using GOSAT measurements. The channel selection for other parameter retrieval (e.g. T, P and H2O) and other instrumental retrieval Retrieval under unclear sky Validate the accuracy of the retrieval results Conclusions 1) The intermediate absorption channels provide most information for CO 2. 2) No influence of scenarios on the channels selection. 3) The reduced-channel retrieval performs good enough compared to the full-channel retrieval. A51A-0083 S a : the a priori covariance matrix; S ξ : the measurement error covariance matrix; K: the Jacobian; A: the averaging Kernel; λ i : the eigenvalues of The simultaneous retrieval using all 2032 channels in both 1.61 μ m CO 2 band and 2.06 μ m CO 2 bands provide 1.67 DOF and 5.9 bits of IC. This figure shows that the retrieval using the first 200 channels in each band would have 1.55 DOF and 5.35 bits of information content (IC). It is about 90% of the information provided by the retrieval using all channels. The retrieval using the first 20 channels has 75% of the information from the full channel retrieval. The channels were selected by ranking the IC from highest to lowest in each band. Channels with highest information content (CO 2 ) are from the channels with intermediate radiance in both bands. For very weak channels, the absorption is too low and no signal is received. On the other hand, for the saturated channels, the absorption is too high so that there is no sensitivity to the signal. 1)Clear sky case 2) High AOD, high COD case Below are the selected 40 channels that are sensitive to CO 2, but insensitive to temperature, water vapor and surface pressure  m (cm -1 )2.06  m (cm -1 ) References Crevoisier, C., Chedin, A. and Scott, N., (2003), AIRS channel selection for CO 2 and other trace-gas retrievals. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc., 129, pp Crisp, D., et al., (2004), The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) mission. Advances in Space Research, 34, pp Rodgers, C. D. (2000), Inverse Methods of Atmospheric Sounding: Theory and Practice. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Company. pp Sato, M., Tahara, S., and Usami, M., (2009), FIP’s Environmentally Conscious Solutions and GOSAT. FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J., Vol. 45, No. 1, pp Yokomizo, M. (2008), Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) Ground Systems. FUJITSU Sci. Tech. J., Vol. 44, No. 4, pp Fig. 1 Weighting functions for CO 2 have peak near surface. a) 1.61 μ m CO 2 band; b) 2.06 μ m CO 2 band 1)Clear sky case 2) High AOD, high COD case First 20 channels with highest IC for CO 2 (cross), temperature (diamond), H 2 O (star) and surface pressure (square). The left column is clear sky scenario; right column is cloudy sky scenario. The O2 A-band channels are only sensitive to temperature and pressure. This figure also shows that the channels with high IC for CO 2 are mostly different from those sensitive for temperature, water vapor and surface pressure. However, the channels most sensitive to the one variable are the same under both scenarios. CO 2 retrieval comparison. Case 2: All channel retrieval; Case 3: Average of 100 all-channel retrievals; Case 5: 40-channel retrieval; Case 6: Average of channel retrievals. The a priori is 375 ppm (constant) for all cases. Random noise is included in the pseudo- measurements. 90% 75%