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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">ESSDD</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>Earth System Science Data Discussions</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">ESSDD</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss.</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">1866-3591</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name></publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/essd-2026-625</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>A consistent climate data record of atmospheric methane from the GOSAT and GOSAT-2 missions</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Parker</surname>
<given-names>Robert J.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0801-0831</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Cartwright</surname>
<given-names>Michael P.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0733-9392</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Orr</surname>
<given-names>Dan</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4834-1555</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Bharathan</surname>
<given-names>Lakshmi N.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5541-0961</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Humpage</surname>
<given-names>Neil</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1109-2524</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Webb</surname>
<given-names>Alex J.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Somkuti</surname>
<given-names>Peter</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Boesch</surname>
<given-names>Hartmut</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3944-9879</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Di Noia</surname>
<given-names>Antonio</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5052-0763</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Suto</surname>
<given-names>Hiroshi</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff7">
<sup>7</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Buschmann</surname>
<given-names>Matthias</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5077-9524</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Deutscher</surname>
<given-names>Nicholas M.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2906-2577</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff8">
<sup>8</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Griffith</surname>
<given-names>David W. T.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7986-1924</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff8">
<sup>8</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Hase</surname>
<given-names>Frank</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff9">
<sup>9</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Kivi</surname>
<given-names>Rigel</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8828-2759</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff10">
<sup>10</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>McGee</surname>
<given-names>Erin</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff11">
<sup>11</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Morino</surname>
<given-names>Isamu</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2720-1569</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff12">
<sup>12</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ohyama</surname>
<given-names>Hirofumi</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2109-9874</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff12">
<sup>12</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Petri</surname>
<given-names>Christof</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7010-5532</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Robinson</surname>
<given-names>John</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff13">
<sup>13</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Roehl</surname>
<given-names>Coleen M.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff14">
<sup>14</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Sha</surname>
<given-names>Mahesh Kumar</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1440-1529</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff15">
<sup>15</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Shiomi</surname>
<given-names>Kei</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1206-8614</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff7">
<sup>7</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Strong</surname>
<given-names>Kimberly</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9947-1053</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff11">
<sup>11</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Sussmann</surname>
<given-names>Ralf</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1970-7538</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff16">
<sup>16</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Té</surname>
<given-names>Yao</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6405-8074</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff17">
<sup>17</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Velazco</surname>
<given-names>Voltaire A.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1376-438X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff18">
<sup>18</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Vrekoussis</surname>
<given-names>Mihalis</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8292-8352</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff19">
<sup>19</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff20">
<sup>20</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Wang</surname>
<given-names>Wei</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff21">
<sup>21</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Warneke</surname>
<given-names>Thorsten</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Weidmann</surname>
<given-names>Damien</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0178-7904</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff22">
<sup>22</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Wunch</surname>
<given-names>Debra</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4924-0377</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff11">
<sup>11</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zhou</surname>
<given-names>Minqiang</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3427-5873</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff23">
<sup>23</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>National Centre for Earth Observation, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Earth Observation Science, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center,  Greenbelt, MD, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>Department of Civil and Computer Engineering, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff7">
<label>7</label>
<addr-line>Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff8">
<label>8</label>
<addr-line>School of Science and Environmental Futures Research Centre, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff9">
<label>9</label>
<addr-line>Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), IMK-ASF, Karlsruhe, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff10">
<label>10</label>
<addr-line>Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Sodankylä, Finland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff11">
<label>11</label>
<addr-line>Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff12">
<label>12</label>
<addr-line>National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Tsukuba, Japan</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff13">
<label>13</label>
<addr-line>Earth Sciences New Zealand, Omakau, New Zealand</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff14">
<label>14</label>
<addr-line>Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff15">
<label>15</label>
<addr-line>Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), Brussels, Belgium</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff16">
<label>16</label>
<addr-line>Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), IMK-IFU, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff17">
<label>17</label>
<addr-line>Sorbonne Université, CNRS, MONARIS, UMR8233, F-75005 Paris, France</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff18">
<label>18</label>
<addr-line>Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), Meteorological Observatory Hohenpeißenberg, 82383 Hohenpeißenberg, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff19">
<label>19</label>
<addr-line>Climate and Atmosphere Research Centre (CARE-C), The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff20">
<label>20</label>
<addr-line>Center of Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM), University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff21">
<label>21</label>
<addr-line>Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Hefei 230061, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff22">
<label>22</label>
<addr-line>STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Space Science and Technology Department, Harwell Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire,  UK</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff23">
<label>23</label>
<addr-line>State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment and Extreme Meteorology, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese  Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>27</day>
<month>08</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>60</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Robert J. Parker et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-625/">This article is available from https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-625/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-625/essd-2026-625.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-625/essd-2026-625.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Understanding the renewed and accelerating growth of atmospheric methane requires satellite records that are long enough to span decadal change and consistent enough that instrumental differences are not mistaken for atmospheric signals. We present version 2.0 of the University of Leicester Proxy retrieval of column-averaged dry-air methane (XCH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;) from the GOSAT-2 TANSO-FTS-2 instrument, comprising approximately 4.4 million quality-filtered soundings in land nadir and ocean glint observation modes between 5 February 2019 and 31 December 2025. The data are processed with the same algorithm, a priori fields, and quality-filtering framework as the established GOSAT Proxy v10.0 product, with the aim of producing a consistent multi-instrument climate data record. The on-board intelligent pointing of GOSAT-2 improves the yield of usable land soundings, particularly at coastal and island sites. The GOSAT-2 bias correction is cross-anchored to GOSAT over 124,206 matched-pair footprints and depends linearly on solar zenith angle. Anchoring to GOSAT rather than directly to the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) leaves the corrected GOSAT-2 with a residual mean TCCON bias of +5.52 ppb, in exchange for sub-ppb inter-instrument consistency over the overlap period. Validation against the TCCON GGG2020.1 release yields a standard deviation of the satellite-minus-TCCON differences of 16.41 ppb and a correlation coefficient of 0.910 across 135,110 co-locations at 24 sites, compared to 16.42 ppb and 0.950 for GOSAT over 25 sites, demonstrating that GOSAT-2 reaches the precision of the heritage instrument. Co-located monthly 2&amp;deg; grid-cell means from GOSAT and GOSAT-2 during the 2019&amp;ndash;2025 overlap correlate at 0.95 (land) and 0.97 (glint), with mean biases of +1.9 and +3.0 ppb. Beyond the cross-anchored correction, no further adjustment for either observation mode is required to merge the two records. The combined record forms a continuous Proxy XCH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; time series spanning 2009 to 2025, which will be extended as both missions continue to operate, and provides a reference for inter-comparison with TROPOMI and the next generation of greenhouse-gas monitoring missions. The GOSAT-2 Proxy XCH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; v2.0 dataset is available from the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis at &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.5285/8209b9acb92e4ba69188c9c8ff7a3b76&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener&quot;&gt;https://doi.org/10.5285/8209b9acb92e4ba69188c9c8ff7a3b76&lt;/a&gt; (Parker et al., 2026a).</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="60"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Natural Environment Research Council</funding-source>
<award-id>NE/W004895/1</award-id>
<award-id>NE/X019071/1</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>UK Research and Innovation</funding-source>
<award-id>MR/X033139/1</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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<back>
</back>
</article>