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MERLIN : A French-German space lidar mission dedicated to atmospheric methane

Ehret, Gerhard ; Bousquet, Philippe ; Pierangelo, Clémence ; Alpers, Matthias ; Millet, Bruno ; Abshire, James B. ; Bovensmann, Heinrich ; Burrows, John P. ; Chevallier, Frédéric and Ciais, Philippe , et al. (2017) In Remote Sensing 9(10).
Abstract

The MEthane Remote sensing Lidar missioN (MERLIN) aims at demonstrating the spaceborne active measurement of atmospheric methane, a potent greenhouse gas, based on an Integrated Path Differential Absorption (IPDA) nadir-viewing LIght Detecting and Ranging (Lidar) instrument. MERLIN is a joint French and German space mission, with a launch currently scheduled for the timeframe 2021/22. The German Space Agency (DLR) is responsible for the payload, while the platform (MYRIADE Evolutions product line) is developed by the French Space Agency (CNES). The main scientific objective of MERLIN is the delivery of weighted atmospheric columns of methane dry-air mole fractions for all latitudes throughout the year with systematic errors small enough... (More)

The MEthane Remote sensing Lidar missioN (MERLIN) aims at demonstrating the spaceborne active measurement of atmospheric methane, a potent greenhouse gas, based on an Integrated Path Differential Absorption (IPDA) nadir-viewing LIght Detecting and Ranging (Lidar) instrument. MERLIN is a joint French and German space mission, with a launch currently scheduled for the timeframe 2021/22. The German Space Agency (DLR) is responsible for the payload, while the platform (MYRIADE Evolutions product line) is developed by the French Space Agency (CNES). The main scientific objective of MERLIN is the delivery of weighted atmospheric columns of methane dry-air mole fractions for all latitudes throughout the year with systematic errors small enough (< 3.7 ppb) to significantly improve our knowledge of methane sources from global to regional scales, with emphasis on poorly accessible regions in the tropics and at high latitudes. This paper presents the MERLIN objectives, describes the methodology and the main characteristics of the payload and of the platform, and proposes a first assessment of the error budget and its translation into expected uncertainty reduction of methane surface emissions.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Atmospheric methane, CH emissions, Global methane budget, IPDA Lidar, MERLIN, Space mission
in
Remote Sensing
volume
9
issue
10
article number
1052
publisher
MDPI AG
external identifiers
  • scopus:85032860774
ISSN
2072-4292
DOI
10.3390/rs9101052
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
51ce41c1-c6db-4071-9c72-b19ed694d01b
date added to LUP
2018-01-18 08:57:08
date last changed
2022-04-17 18:14:53
@article{51ce41c1-c6db-4071-9c72-b19ed694d01b,
  abstract     = {{<p>The MEthane Remote sensing Lidar missioN (MERLIN) aims at demonstrating the spaceborne active measurement of atmospheric methane, a potent greenhouse gas, based on an Integrated Path Differential Absorption (IPDA) nadir-viewing LIght Detecting and Ranging (Lidar) instrument. MERLIN is a joint French and German space mission, with a launch currently scheduled for the timeframe 2021/22. The German Space Agency (DLR) is responsible for the payload, while the platform (MYRIADE Evolutions product line) is developed by the French Space Agency (CNES). The main scientific objective of MERLIN is the delivery of weighted atmospheric columns of methane dry-air mole fractions for all latitudes throughout the year with systematic errors small enough (&lt; 3.7 ppb) to significantly improve our knowledge of methane sources from global to regional scales, with emphasis on poorly accessible regions in the tropics and at high latitudes. This paper presents the MERLIN objectives, describes the methodology and the main characteristics of the payload and of the platform, and proposes a first assessment of the error budget and its translation into expected uncertainty reduction of methane surface emissions.</p>}},
  author       = {{Ehret, Gerhard and Bousquet, Philippe and Pierangelo, Clémence and Alpers, Matthias and Millet, Bruno and Abshire, James B. and Bovensmann, Heinrich and Burrows, John P. and Chevallier, Frédéric and Ciais, Philippe and Crevoisier, Cyril and Fix, Andreas and Flamant, Pierre and Frankenberg, Christian and Gibert, Fabien and Heim, Birgit and Heimann, Martin and Houweling, Sander and Hubberten, Hans W. and Jöckel, Patrick and Law, Kathy and Löw, Alexander and Marshall, Julia and Agusti-Panareda, Anna and Payan, Sebastien and Prigent, Catherine and Rairoux, Patrick and Sachs, Torsten and Scholze, Marko and Wirth, Martin}},
  issn         = {{2072-4292}},
  keywords     = {{Atmospheric methane; CH emissions; Global methane budget; IPDA Lidar; MERLIN; Space mission}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{10}},
  number       = {{10}},
  publisher    = {{MDPI AG}},
  series       = {{Remote Sensing}},
  title        = {{MERLIN : A French-German space lidar mission dedicated to atmospheric methane}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs9101052}},
  doi          = {{10.3390/rs9101052}},
  volume       = {{9}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}