A Comparative Analysis of Satellite‐Derived CO Retrievals During the 2020 Wildfires in North America

Overview & Synopsis

In September 2020, the Western United States experienced anomalously severe wildfires that resulted in carbon monoxide (CO) emissions almost three times the 2001-2019 average. In this study, we investigate the influence of wildfires on atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO) variability through a comparative analysis of observations from the Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT), the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), and the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). Our focus is on the North American domain, aiming to understand the differences among these products. In general, all instruments show excellent agreement under typical atmospheric CO conditions. However, notable discrepancies were observed in the CO data from the three sensors, particularly in regions with elevated CO total column (TC) values. IASI and TROPOMI consistently showed higher CO values over the western U.S. compared to MOPITT. During the fire episodes, we found that the IASI retrievals suggested higher CO abundances near the surface than the MOPITT thermal infrared retrievals that are probably the result of the differences in the covariance matrices used in IASI and MOPITT retrievals. We also found that the high IASI and TROPOMI CO observations over the western U.S. coincided with high values of the TROPOMI aerosol index (AI), suggesting the presence of absorbing aerosols. The analysis exhibited better agreement between TROPOMI and MOPITT CO TC when the AI values were low. Our results suggest that appropriate quality filtering should be employed when analyzing pollution events with these data. In particular, utilizing the AI for quality filtering may be useful when analyzing extreme pollution events with these satellite products. Plain Language SummaryIn September 2020, wildfires in the Western U.S. caused large smoke plumes that spread across the continent, significantly increasing atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO) levels. Using data from the MOPITT, IASI, and TROPOMI satellite sensors, this study found strong CO enhancements from the fires. The sensors showed good agreement under moderate CO conditions but diverged in areas of high CO and heavy aerosol loads, suggesting aerosol interference in CO retrievals. TROPOMI's UV Aerosol Index (AI) and CALIPSO data were used to evaluate aerosol impacts, emphasizing the need for quality filtering when analyzing CO during intense pollution events.