CO 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 O are recognised as the most important greenhouse gases, the concentrations of which increase rapidly through human activities. Space-borne integrated path differential absorption lidar allows global observations at day and night over land and water surfaces in all climates. In this study we investigate potential sources of measurement errors and compare them with the scientific requirements. Our simulations reveal that moderate-size instruments in terms of telescope aperture (0.5-1.5 m) and laser average power (0.4-4 W) potentially have a low random error of the greenhouse gas column which is 0.2% for CO 2 and 0.4% for CH 4 for soundings at 1.6 µm, 0.4% for CO 2 at 2.1 µm, 0.6% for CH 4 at 2.3 µm, and 0.3% for N 2 O at 3.9 µm. Coherent detection instruments are generally limited by speckle noise, while direct detection instruments suffer from high detector noise using current technology. The wavelength selection in the vicinity of the absorption line is critical as it controls the height region of highest sensitivity, the temperature cross-sensitivity, and the demands on frequency stability. For CO 2 , an error budget of 0.08% is derived from our analysis of the sources of systematic errors. Among them, the frequency stability of ± 0.3 MHz for the laser transmitter and spectral purity of 99.9% in conjunction with a narrow-band spectral filter of 1 GHz (FWHM) are identified to be challenging instrument requirements for a direct detection CO 2 system operating at 1.6 µm.

The integrated-path differential-absorption lidar CHARM-F (CO and CH Remote Monitoring-Flugzeug) was developed for the simultaneous measurement of the greenhouse gases CO and CH onboard the German research aircraft HALO (High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft). The purpose is to derive the weighted, column-averaged dry-air mixing ratios of the two gases with high precision and accuracy between aircraft and ground or cloud tops. This paper presents the first measurements, performed in the spring of 2015, and shows performance analyses as well as the methodology for the quantification of strong point sources applied on example cases. A measurement precision of below 0.5% for 20 km averages was found. However, individual measurements still show deviations of the absolute mixing ratios compared to corresponding data from in situ profiles. The detailed analysis of the methane point source emission rate yields plausible results (26±3  m/min or 9.2±1.15  kt CH yr), which is in good agreement with reported numbers. In terms of CO, a power plant emission could be identified and analyzed.

Active remote sensing is a promising technique to close the gaps that exist in global measurement of atmospheric carbon dioxide sources, sinks and fluxes. Several approaches are currently under development. Here, an experimental setup of an integrated path differential absorption lidar (IPDA) is presented, operating at 1.57 µm using direct detection. An injection seeded KTP-OPO system pumped by a Nd:YAG laser serves as the transmitter. The seed laser is actively stabilized by means of a CO 2 reference cell. The line-narrowed OPO radiation yields a high spectral purity, which is measured by means of a long path absorption cell. First measurements of diurnal variations of the atmospheric CO 2 mixing ratio using a topographic target were performed and show good agreement compared to simultaneously taken measurements of an in situ device. A further result is that the required power reference measurement of each laser pulse in combination with the spatial beam quality is a critical point of this method. The system described can serve as a testbed for further investigations of special features of the IPDA technique.

Abstract.Methane is the third most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere after water vapour and carbon dioxide. A major handicap to quantify the emissions at the Earth's surface in order to better understand biosphere-atmosphere exchange processes and potential climate feedbacks is the lack of accurate and global observations of methane. Space-based integrated path differential absorption (IPDA) lidar has potential to fill this gap, and a Methane Remote Lidar Mission (MERLIN) on a small satellite in polar orbit was proposed by DLR and CNES in the frame of a German-French climate monitoring initiative. System simulations are used to identify key performance parameters and to find an advantageous instrument configuration, given the environmental, technological, and budget constraints. The sensitivity studies use representative averages of the atmospheric and surface state to estimate the measurement precision, i.e. the random uncertainty due to instrument noise. Key performance parameters for MERLIN are average laser power, telescope size, orbit height, surface reflectance, and detector noise. A modestsize lidar instrument with 0.45 W average laser power and 0.55 m telescope diameter on a 506 km orbit could provide 50-km averaged methane column measurement along the sub-satellite track with a precision of about 1 % over vegetation. The use of a methane absorption trough at 1.65 µm improves the near-surface measurement sensitivity and vastly relaxes the wavelength stability requirement that was identified as one of the major technological risks in the pre-phase A studies for A-SCOPE, a space-based IPDA lidar for carbon dioxide at the European Space Agency. Minimal humidity and temperature sensitivity at this wavelength position will enable accurate measurements in tropical wetlands, keyCorrespondence to: C. Kiemle (christoph.kiemle@dlr.de) regions with largely uncertain methane emissions. In contrast to actual passive remote sensors, measurements in Polar Regions will be possible and biases due to aerosol layers and thin ice clouds will be minimised.

Abstract. The characteristics of the lidar reflectance of the Earth's surface is an important issue for the IPDA lidar technique (integrated path differential absorption lidar) which is the proposed method for the spaceborne measurement of atmospheric carbon dioxide within the framework of ESA's A-SCOPE project. Both, the absolute reflectance of the ground and its variations have an impact on the measurement sensitivity. The first aspect influences the instrument's signal to noise ratio, the second one can lead to retrieval errors, if the ground reflectance changes are strong on small scales. The investigation of the latter is the main purpose of this study. Airborne measurements of the lidar ground reflectance at 1.57 µm wavelength were performed in Central and Western Europe, including many typical land surface coverages as well as the open sea. The analyses of the data show, that the lidar ground reflectance is highly variable on a wide range of spatial scales. However, by means of the assumption of laser footprints in the order of several tens of meters, as planned for spaceborne systems, and by means of an averaging of the data it was shown, that this specific retrieval error is well below 1 ppm (CO 2 column mixing ratio), and so compatible with the sensitivity requirements of spaceborne CO 2 measurements. Several approaches for upscaling the data in terms of the consideration of larger laser footprints, compared to the one used here, are shown and discussed. Furthermore, the collected data are compared to MODIS ground reflectance data.