Retrieval of surface skin temperature from MOPITT measurements: validation and impacts to the retrievals of tropospheric carbon monoxide profiles

The Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument is designed to measure the spatial and temporal variation of the carbon monoxide (CO) profile and total column amount in the troposphere from space. MOPITT channels are sensitive to both thermal emission from the surface and target gas absorption and emission. Surface temperature and emissivity are retrieved simultaneously with the CO profile. To obtain the desired precision for the retrieved CO profiles, it is important to retrieve the surface skin temperature accurately and understand the effects of any errors in retrieved skin temperature on retrieved CO. To demonstrate the impacts of surface skin temperature on the retrieval of the tropospheric CO profile, a simulation study is performed. The collocated Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) surface temperatures are used to validate the accuracy of the retrieved MOPITT surface temperatures.