INMENSE (IASI for surveyiNg MethanE and NitrouS oxidE in the troposphere, 2016-2020) aims to improve our current understanding of the atmospheric budgets of two of the most important well-mixed greenhouse gases, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Knowledge of the atmospheric distributions of CH4 and N2O concentrations, from the local to global scales, as well as their variability in time is essential for a better understanding of their sinks and sources, and for predicting their evolution in the atmosphere. In order to achieve this core objetive, INMENSE connects the three main pillars of the current observational strategies for investigating the atmospheric composition: high-quality and high-frequency ground-based observations, global coverage from satellite platforms, and chemistry transport modelling.
INMENSE will generate a new global observational data set of middle/upper tropospheric concentrations of CH4 and N2O with high and well-documented quality. For this purpose, it will further develop and evaluate combined CH4 and N2O retrievals that use the thermal emission spectra measured by the satellite sensor IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer), aboard the meteorological satellites Metop. The IASI observations will be integrated with model estimates of the chemistry transport MOCAGE (Modélisation de la Chimie Atmosphérique Grande Echelle). Furthermore, it will be evaluated if it is possible to reduce the CH4 model errors that are correlated to the N2O model errors. By the integrated observation/modelling approach INMENSE will investigate the kind of CH4 and N2O sink/source signals that can be captured by high quality IASI observations.
The INMENSE project involves scientists from the Izaña Atmospheric Research Center (AEMET, Spain), the Modeling Service for Air Quality (MSAQ–AEMET, Spain), and the BOD&MUSICA-IMK-ASF-KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany).
The Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad provides financial support to the INMENSE project through grant no. CGL2016-80688-P.
Contact the Principal Investigator of INMENSE.