TCCON at Ten

Abstract:

Ten years ago this past May the first station of the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON), a network of ground-based Fourier Transform Spectrometers that record direct solar spectra in the near-infrared, became operational. Now a decade later, TCCON has expanded to around 20 sites and provides column CO₂ abundances for satellite validation and valuable insights into regional- and global-scale carbon cycle processes.

Here, we will discuss this international network/partnership and the accurate and precise column-averaged abundances of atmospheric constituents (CO₂, CH₄, N₂O, HF, CO, H₂O, and HDO) retrieved. Decade-long data time series and the resulting discoveries about regional sources and sinks of CO₂ and CH₄, will be presented as will be the TCCON’s contributions to space-based measurements, including the validation support for the recently launched OCO-2 satellite.