Global decadal measurements of methanol, ethene, ethyne, and HCN from the Cross-track Infrared Sounder

Abstract. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play an important role in modulating the atmosphere's oxidizing capacity and affect tropospheric ozone, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and organic aerosol formation. Space-based observations can provide powerful global information to advance our knowledge of these processes and their changes over time. We present here the development of new retrievals for four key VOCs (methanol, ethene, ethyne, and HCN) based on thermal infrared radiance observations from the satellite-borne Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS). We update the Retrieval of Organics from CrIS Radiances (ROCR) algorithm developed previously for isoprene to explicitly account for the spectral signal dependence on the VOC vertical profile shape, and we apply this updated retrieval (ROCRv2) to derive column abundances for the targeted species across the full Suomi NPP CrIS record (2012–2023). The CrIS data are well correlated with ground-based Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) retrievals for methanol (r = 0.77–0.84); HCN and ethyne exhibit lower correlations (r = 0.36–0.44 and 0.56–0.65, respectively) with an apparent 40 % CrIS–NDACC disparity for ethyne. The results reveal robust global distributions of the target VOCs from known biogenic, biomass burning, and industrial source regions, and they demonstrate the impact of anomalous events such as the 2015–2016 El Niño. They also highlight the importance of accurate vertical profile constraints when evaluating and interpreting thermal infrared data records. Initial comparisons of the CrIS observations to predicted VOC distributions from the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model point to large uncertainties in our current understanding of the atmospheric ethene budget as well as to underestimated HCN, ethyne, and methanol sources.

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Publication Details

Journal
Atmospheric measurement techniques
Published
2025-02-07
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-695-2025
Citations
5
Primary Topic
Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
6.50

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article

Global decadal measurements of methanol, ethene, ethyne, and HCN from the Cross-track Infrared Sounder

Dylan B. Millet, Minqiang Zhou, Dan Smale, Kimberly Strong et al.
5 citations
Atmospheric measurement techniques
Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
6.50
article

Global decadal measurements of methanol, ethene, ethyne, and HCN from the Cross-track Infrared Sounder

Dylan B. Millet, Minqiang Zhou, Dan Smale, Kimberly Strong, Mathias Palm, Emmanuel Mahieu, Jared F. Brewer, Nicholas Jones, Kelley C. Wells, S. S. Kulawik, Rick Pernak, Matthias Schneider, Iván Ortega, Vivienne H. Payne, Tomoo Nagahama, Karen Cady‐Pereira, Ralf Sussmann, Corinne Vigouroux, Maria Makarova
article en
5 citations

Abstract

Abstract. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play an important role in modulating the atmosphere's oxidizing capacity and affect tropospheric ozone, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and organic aerosol formation. Space-based observations can provide powerful global information to advance our knowledge of these processes and their changes over time. We present here the development of new retrievals for four key VOCs (methanol, ethene, ethyne, and HCN) based on thermal infrared radiance observations from the satellite-borne Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS). We update the Retrieval of Organics from CrIS Radiances (ROCR) algorithm developed previously for isoprene to explicitly account for the spectral signal dependence on the VOC vertical profile shape, and we apply this updated retrieval (ROCRv2) to derive column abundances for the targeted species across the full Suomi NPP CrIS record (2012–2023). The CrIS data are well correlated with ground-based Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) retrievals for methanol (r = 0.77–0.84); HCN and ethyne exhibit lower correlations (r = 0.36–0.44 and 0.56–0.65, respectively) with an apparent 40 % CrIS–NDACC disparity for ethyne. The results reveal robust global distributions of the target VOCs from known biogenic, biomass burning, and industrial source regions, and they demonstrate the impact of anomalous events such as the 2015–2016 El Niño. They also highlight the importance of accurate vertical profile constraints when evaluating and interpreting thermal infrared data records. Initial comparisons of the CrIS observations to predicted VOC distributions from the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model point to large uncertainties in our current understanding of the atmospheric ethene budget as well as to underestimated HCN, ethyne, and methanol sources.

Atmospheric measurement techniquesVol. 18(3)
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE), NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (US), University of Minnesota (US), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US), University of Liège (BE), St Petersburg University (RU), University of Bremen (DE), University of Toronto (CA), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BE), University of Wollongong (AU), Bay Area Environmental Research Institute (US), Institute of Atmospheric Physics (CN), Atmospheric and Environmental Research (US), National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NZ), Nagoya University (JP)
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Minnesota Supercomputing Institute, University of Minnesota, NASA Headquarters
Openalex Percentile: Top 4%
Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
6.50
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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