CEOS Development Environment

Atmospheric Composition

The Atmospheric Composition Virtual Constellation (AC-VC) goal is to collect and deliver data to improve monitoring, assessment, and predictive capabilities for changes in the ozone layer, air quality, and climate forcing associated with changes in the environment through coordination of existing and future international space assets.

Documents

White Paper: Geostationary Satellite Constellation for Observing Global Air Quality: Geophysical Validation Needs

This whitepaper elaborates the validation needs and inter-mission consistency targets of the Geo-AQ constellation. This constellation consists of the geostationary atmospheric composition missions GEMS, Sentinel-4, and TEMPO, which provide hourly observations of key air pollutants, and is complemented by low Earth orbiting missions with a strong focus on air quality. Recommendations are made for activities that are needed to address new challenges associated with the geostationary perspective, to assess and establish the consistency of data products, and to enhance the impact of the individual missions as elements of a constellation.

A Constellation Architecture For Monitoring Carbon Dioxide And Methane From Space

This white paper defines a global architecture for monitoring atmospheric CO2 and CH4 concentrations and their natural and anthropogenic fluxes from space to (i) reduce uncertainty of national emission inventory reporting, identify additional emission reduction opportunities and provide nations with timely and quantified guidance on progress towards their emission reduction strategies and pledges; and (ii) track changes in the natural carbon cycle caused by human activities and climate variations.

A Geostationary Satellite Constellation for Observing Global Air Quality: An International Path Forward (2011)

There are currently three missions in development that make observations relevant to our understanding of air quality and climate change from geostationary orbits. This white paper outlines our recommendations, developed in consultation with the broader air quality research community, on how to facilitate cross-agency collaboration and maximize the benefits of these observations to the research and applications communities.

Contact Us

Please feel free to contact the AC-VC Co-Chairs for more information:

You may also contact AC-VC Topical Leads:

  • Greenhouse Gas Lead: John Worden (NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA)
  • Ozone Lead: Diego Loyola (German Aerospace Center, DLR)
  • AC-VC Aerosol Air Quality Lead: Shobha Kondragunta (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, USA)

Upcoming Meetings

There are no upcoming meetings.

Recent Meetings

AC-VC-18 : March, 2022 | Virtual
AC-VC Topical Seminar #1 : July, 2021 | Virtual
AC-VC-17 : June, 2021 | Virtual
AC-VC-16 (Virtual) : June, 2020 | Virtual
AC-VC-15 : Tokyo, Japan | June, 2019
AC-VC-14 & GEO-CAPE Joint Meeting : College Park, MD, USA | May, 2018
AC-VC-13 : Paris, France | June, 2017
AC-VC-12 : Seoul, Korea | October, 2016
AC-VC-11 : Frascati, Italy |April, 2015
AC-VC-10 : College Park, Maryland, USA | June, 2014