*Hiroshi Tanimoto1, Tsuneo Matsunaga1, Nobuko Saigusa1, Takafumi Sugita1, Hisashi Yashiro1, Isamu Morino1, Makoto Saito1, Hirofumi Ohyama1, Kohei Ikeda1, Yu Someya1, Tamaki Fujinawa1, Yousuke Yamashita1, Tazu Saeki1, Yugo Kanaya2, Takashi Sekiya2, Yasuko Kasai3, Tomohiro Sato3
(1.National Institute for Environmental Studies, 2.Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 3.National Institute of Information and Communications Technology)
Keywords:carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, climate change, air pollution, methane
Following the GOSAT satellite launched by Japan in 2009, several satellites observing greenhouse gases (GHGs) including carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) were launched by the United States, Europe and China and are successfully in operation. There are several plans to launch additional GHG-observing satellites in near future. In Japan there is an ongoing plan to launch the third satellite in the GOSAT series. This mission is named “Global Observing SATellite for Greenhouse gases and Water cycle (GOSAT-GW)”, with an objective to observe CO2, CH4, and nitrogen dioxides (NO2) with the Total Anthropogenic and Natural emissions mapping SpectrOmeter-3 (TANSO-3) sensor, providing the data at a horizontal resolution of 3 km or less. The missions of GOSAT-GW include (1) monitoring of whole atmosphere-mean concentrations of GHGs, (2) validation of nationwide anthropogenic emissions of GHGs, and (3) detection of GHGs emissions from large sources. We will brief an overview of its objectives and current status, with a focus on scientific targets and approaches, and implications for international climate change abatement strategies.