Can the data assimilation of CO from MOPITT or IASI constrain
high-latitude wildfire emissions? A Case Study of the 2017 Canadian
Wildfires
Abstract
In this study, we examine the ability of the data assimilation of global
satellite-based carbon monoxide (CO) observations to constrain
high-latitude boreal wildfire emissions. We compare the optimized
emissions from inversions using CO measurements from the Measurement of
Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) and Infrared Atmospheric Sounding
Interferometer (IASI). We found that both inversions yield generally
consistent posterior CO emissions globally; however, distinct
differences are observed for the episodic 2017 Canadian wildfires. The
3-day global coverage of MOPITT limits its ability to accurately
optimize emissions, while the daily global coverage of IASI provides a
moderate improvement despite its lower surface sensitivity. Through a
series of observing system simulation experiments (OSSEs), we show that
the temporal coverage of IASI most strongly influenced the posterior
estimates, while the differences in vertical sensitivities of MOPITT and
IASI have a minor contribution.