This paper examines the seasonal variation of column formaldehyde (HCHO), NO₂, and O₃ as retrieved from satellite Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and ground-based Pandora spectrometer observations. Both OMI and Pandora show that HCHO has a strong seasonal dependence. The daily amount of NO₂ pollution is underestimated by the OMI satellite observations. Pandora O₃ measurements have been successfully compared with hourly satellite measurements from the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC).

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has developed an integrated-path, differential absorption lidar approach to measure column-averaged atmospheric CO₂ (XCO₂). We demonstrated the lidar’s capability to measure XCO₂ to cloud tops ,as well as to the ground, with the data from the summer 2017 airborne campaign in the US and Canada. This active remote sensing technique can provide all-sky data coverage and high-quality XCO₂ measurements for future airborne science campaigns and space missions.

We present a collection of carbon surface fluxes, the Low-order Flux Inversion (LoFI), derived from satellite observations of the Earth's surface and calibrated to match long-term inventories and atmospheric and oceanic records. Simulations using LoFI reproduce background atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements with comparable skill to the leading surface flux products. Available both retrospectively and as a forecast, LoFI enables the study of the carbon cycle as it occurs.

This paper gives a detailed and complete description of the retrieval algorithm used in the multi-wavelength lidar for average column carbon dioxide mixing ratio measurements. The algorithm is similar to that used in passive trace-gas sounding and simultaneously solves for several parameters and provides the associated averaging kernel. The algorithm has been successfully used with the airborne lidar measurements. It can also be used with similar lidar for other trace-gas measurements.