Abstract

The Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) Experiment project began in 1988 as a joint effort by Dr. James Drummond (University of Toronto and Dalhousie University) and Dr. John Gille at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The MOPITT instrument was launched on the ... Show moreThe Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) Experiment project began in 1988 as a joint effort by Dr. James Drummond (University of Toronto and Dalhousie University) and Dr. John Gille at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The MOPITT instrument was launched on the NASA Terra satellite in 1999 and is the first instrument to make global long-term measurements of tropospheric carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations. CO plays a key role in tropospheric chemistry and climate and is useful for tracking pollution transport from fires and urban sources due to a lifetime of weeks to months in the atmosphere. The MOPITT instrument measures atmospheric CO abundance using gas correlation radiometers in a nadir-viewing geometry. Analyses of MOPITT data products, combined with chemical transport models and in situ observations, are clarifying and expanding the knowledge of tropospheric chemical processes and the sources of pollutants. Show less