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Comparisons with Independent Vertical Profiles (CT2007)
 
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Time vs Height diagram of observed and modeled mole fractions of CO2. The observations (top panel) are from NOAA ESRL's aircraft program and were not used in CarbonTracker to constrain the fluxes. The color code indicates the mole fraction value according to the right hand side bar. All observations were co-sampled in CarbonTracker (bottom panel) for comparison. This is an independent verification of CarbonTracker's ability to represent the vertical structure of the atmosphere over time. Because almost all the measurements used to constrain fluxes in CarbonTracker were made in the boundary layer the vertical profiles provide an important validation of CarbonTrackers estimates of mole fractions of CO2 in the free troposphere. Future versions of CarbonTracker hope to exploit this information to constrain vertical mixing parameterizations and minimize seasonal biases observed in the free troposphere.
Time vs Height diagram of modeled minus observed mole fractions of CO2. The observations are from NOAA ESRL's aircraft program and were not used in CarbonTracker to constrain the fluxes. The color code indicates the difference in mole fraction value according to the right hand side bar. All observations were co-sampled in CarbonTracker (bottom panel) for comparison. This is an independent verification of CarbonTracker's ability to represent the vertical structure of the atmosphere over time. Large differences between CarbonTracker results and data can be attributed to misrepresentation of vertical mixing in the transport model and errors in the surface flux estimates. Differences between model and aircraft profiles will tend to be larger in areas not as well constrained by ground sites used in the CarbonTracker data assimilation system.
Time-of-year vs Height diagram of model minus observed mole fractions of CO2. The observations are from NOAA ESRL's aircraft program and were not used in CarbonTracker to constrain the fluxes. The color code indicates the difference in mole fraction value according to the right hand side bar. All observations were co-sampled in CarbonTracker (bottom panel) for comparison. This is an independent verification of CarbonTracker's ability to represent the vertical structure of the atmosphere over the season. Large differences between CarbonTracker results and data can be attributed to misrepresentation of vertical mixing in the transport model and errors in the surface flux estimates. Differences between model and aircraft profiles will tend to be larger in areas not as well constrained by ground sites used in the CarbonTracker data assimilation system.