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Abstract:
On 18th December 1999, the Terra platform was launched from the Vandenberg Air Force base carrying the Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument measuring carbon oxide (CO). Although manifested for a 5-year mission, the Terra satellite and MOPITT have now completed more than 23.5 years of operation. The 23+ years of continuous data series from MOPITT provide a great opportunity for investigations all over the globe. The instrument has been very stable and throughout the mission, the data have been validated. The result is a well-characterised time record that can now be “mined” for a variety of phenomena. Over the time that MOPITT has measured, it appears that the global burden of CO is decreasing, but superimposed on this trend are episodic events, and some of these recent events – especially 2020 for both Australia and North America – have extremely high values. These events occurred in highly populated regions and therefore are important because of the societal and economic issues. This paper will explore whether these events are coming more frequent or not. MOPITT was built in Canada by COMDEV of Cambridge, ON, data processing is performed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO. The Terra satellite is funded and operated by NASA, and the MOPITT instrument and operations are funded by the Canadian Space Agency.
