Evaluation of Modeled Carbon Monoxide and Methane Columns in the High Arctic Using TCCON Measurements

Abstract Methane (CH 4 ) and carbon monoxide (CO) are gases with important climate impacts as direct and indirect greenhouse gases, respectively. Methane has a warming potential 28 times that of carbon dioxide on a 100‐year timescale, and carbon monoxide is a precursor to ozone in the troposphere. Modeling trace gas concentrations in the Arctic atmosphere can be challenging due to Arctic conditions and sensitivity to long‐range transport, and comparing model outputs to remote sensing measurements is essential for ensuring that models are performing well. Ground‐based Arctic measurements are spatially sparse, so it is important to make use of all such available data sets. In this study, we assess eight atmospheric models, comparing their simulations of atmospheric CO and CH 4 column‐averaged dry‐air mole fractions for 2014 and 2015 with ground‐based retrievals of these species at three Arctic stations in the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON). The multi‐model mean had mean biases (± one standard deviation of the mean) of −5.4% ± 8% at Eureka, Canada, −6.5% ± 8% at Ny‐Ålesund, Norway, and −11% ± 7% at Sodankylä, Finland for CO, and mean biases of −0.25% ± 0.5% at Eureka, −0.90% ± 0.5% at Ny‐Ålesund, and −1.0% ± 0.5% at Sodankylä for CH 4 . Individual model mean biases range from −33% to +35% for CO and −2.5% to +1.9% for CH 4 . These results indicate that models could benefit from improvements targeting simulations of Arctic CO.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres
Published
2025-10-22
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1029/2025jd043489
Primary Topic
Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Evaluation of Modeled Carbon Monoxide and Methane Columns in the High Arctic Using TCCON Measurements

Naga Oshima, Cynthia Whaley, Jean‐Christophe Raut, Kimberly Strong et al.
Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres
Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
article

Evaluation of Modeled Carbon Monoxide and Methane Columns in the High Arctic Using TCCON Measurements

Naga Oshima, Cynthia Whaley, Jean‐Christophe Raut, Kimberly Strong, David A. Plummer, G.L. Cassidy, Justus Notholt, Luca Pozzoli, Tatsuo Onishi, Louis Marelle, Joshua S. Fu, Michael Gauss, Svetlana Tsyro, Rigel Kivi, S. R. Beagley, Erin McGee, Kaley A. Walker, Xinyi Dong, Joakim Langner, Kathy S. Law, Wanmin Gong, Srdan Dobricic, Rong‐You Chien
article en

Abstract

Abstract Methane (CH 4 ) and carbon monoxide (CO) are gases with important climate impacts as direct and indirect greenhouse gases, respectively. Methane has a warming potential 28 times that of carbon dioxide on a 100‐year timescale, and carbon monoxide is a precursor to ozone in the troposphere. Modeling trace gas concentrations in the Arctic atmosphere can be challenging due to Arctic conditions and sensitivity to long‐range transport, and comparing model outputs to remote sensing measurements is essential for ensuring that models are performing well. Ground‐based Arctic measurements are spatially sparse, so it is important to make use of all such available data sets. In this study, we assess eight atmospheric models, comparing their simulations of atmospheric CO and CH 4 column‐averaged dry‐air mole fractions for 2014 and 2015 with ground‐based retrievals of these species at three Arctic stations in the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON). The multi‐model mean had mean biases (± one standard deviation of the mean) of −5.4% ± 8% at Eureka, Canada, −6.5% ± 8% at Ny‐Ålesund, Norway, and −11% ± 7% at Sodankylä, Finland for CO, and mean biases of −0.25% ± 0.5% at Eureka, −0.90% ± 0.5% at Ny‐Ålesund, and −1.0% ± 0.5% at Sodankylä for CH 4 . Individual model mean biases range from −33% to +35% for CO and −2.5% to +1.9% for CH 4 . These results indicate that models could benefit from improvements targeting simulations of Arctic CO.

Journal of Geophysical Research AtmospheresVol. 130(20)
Finnish Meteorological Institute (FI), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (US), Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Norwegian Meteorological Institute (NO), Environment and Climate Change Canada (CA), University of Bremen (DE), Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (FR), University of Toronto (CA), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (FR), Japan Meteorological Agency (JP), Sorbonne Université (FR), Fincons Group (Italy) (IT), Joint Research Centre (IT), Laboratoire atmosphères, milieux, observations spatiales (FR), Meteorological Research Institute (JP), University of Tennessee at Knoxville (US)
Canadian Space Agency
Openalex Percentile: Top 72%
Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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