On error estimation in atmospheric CO2 inversions

Richard J. Engelen, A. Scott Denning, Kevin R. Gurney

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

55 Scopus citations

Abstract

[1] This paper explores various sources of error in atmospheric CO 2 synthesis inversions using global circulation models. The estimation of prior, observation, model transport, and representation errors is described, and the latter two error sources are explored in more detail. Not accounting for these errors will act as a hard constraint on the inversion and will produce incorrect solutions to the problem as is shown in some example inversions. The magnitude of these errors falls generally between about 10% and 100% in the retrieved fluxes but can be even larger. This makes it highly desirable to avoid hard constraints and apply any prior information we have about the surface fluxes as a weak constraint to the inversion problem.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)ACL 10-1-ACL 10-13
JournalJournal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres
Volume107
Issue number22
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2002
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Error
  • Fluxes
  • Model inversion

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Materials Chemistry
  • Polymers and Plastics
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

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