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Can the data assimilation of CO from MOPITT or IASI constrain high-latitude wildfire emissions? A Case Study of the 2017 Canadian Wildfires
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  • Erik Lutsch,
  • Debra Wunch,
  • Dylan B. A. Jones,
  • Cathy Clerbaux,
  • James W Hannigan,
  • Tai-Long He,
  • Ivan Ortega,
  • Sebastien Roche,
  • Kimberly Strong,
  • Helen M Worden
Erik Lutsch
Department of Physics, University of Toronto

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Debra Wunch
University of Toronto
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Dylan B. A. Jones
University of Toronto
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Cathy Clerbaux
LATMOS/CNRS
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James W Hannigan
National Center for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)
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Tai-Long He
University of Toronto
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Ivan Ortega
National Center for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)
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Sebastien Roche
Department of Physics, University of Toronto
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Kimberly Strong
University of Toronto
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Helen M Worden
National Center for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)
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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.