The independent monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions are of central importance for international climate protection policy. The CoMet missions serve to prepare and support remote sensing missions, such as the Franco-German MERLIN mission and other satellite missions that measure greenhouse gases. The predominant source of global warming, which is considered one of the greatest societal challenges of the 21st century, is the increase of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere. The two most important of these human-influenced species are carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). However, it is not only human activities such as energy production and extraction, waste disposal and agriculture that are important, but also large natural sources such as the extensive wetlands in the Arctic and the tropics. Wetland vegetation absorbs and stores carbon, while its decomposition releases CO2 and CH4. These processes make global wetlands one of the most important, yet least understood, sources and sinks in the global methane and CO2 budget. However, knowledge of these processes, their magnitude relative to human-induced emissions, and the feedback mechanisms are not yet sufficiently understood to meet the needs of scientists and policy makers to provide more accurate climate change projections and assess appropriate measures to achieve climate goals.
Therefore, precise measurements of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are required, from which emissions can be derived on all spatial and temporal scales. As part of the CoMet field measurement campaigns, we aim to achieve this using a specially equipped research aircraft with the best instrumentation currently available for measuring atmospheric greenhouse gases. Such scientifically relevant case studies are used in particular to prepare and validate satellite observations.
The CoMet campaign series is under the direction of the German Aerospace Centre - DLR and uses the German research aircraft HALO (High Altitude and LOng Range Aircraft).
