CoMet 3.0 Tropics also supports the validation of existing and future satellite missions, such as the German-French climate mission MERLIN, the Copernicus Sentinel Expansion Mission CO2M or Sentinel-5 for recording greenhouse gases.
In addition, the central question of this field study is whether it is possible to distinguish between emissions from different natural and anthropogenic sources. Tropical wetlands contribute to the global carbon cycle to an even greater extent than their Arctic counterparts. For this reason, CoMet 3.0 Tropics extends the campaign series to tropical wetlands such as the Pantanal in Brazil and the Amazon region. Here, too, emissions from natural sources overlap with anthropogenic emissions such as those from agriculture, waste management and energy production. Forest fires also contribute significantly to emissions.
The CoMet 3.0 Tropics mission contributes to reducing uncertainty in global methane estimates for wetlands, which is a complex task due to spatially distributed emissions and annual variability. In particular, current data coverage in the tropics is limited as ground-based and satellite-based observations are restricted with challenges such as inaccessible terrain or heavy cloud cover.
Airborne field campaigns are therefore promising to close these gaps. The planned instrumentation includes the unique CoMet payload, which consists of advanced remote sensing and in-situ instruments as used in CoMet 2.0 Arctic. The collected data will be used in regional inverse modelling, climate chemistry modelling and climate modelling. CoMet 3.0 Tropics is planned for an approximately six-week deployment in Brazil in the summer of 2026, with strong support from Brazilian research institutions. In addition to the cooperation with the Brazilian partners, there is also close collaboration with the French MAGIC-Initiative and ESA as part of its Carbon Amazon Rainforest Airborne project (CarbonARA) and the Brazilian CO2 CH4 Nitrous Oxide Largescale Experiment project (BRACCIOLE).
Optical spectrometer with six channels in three wavelength ranges (UV-A: 310-440 nm, visible: 420-640 nm and near infrared: 1100-1680 nm) for analysing NO2, HONO, CH2O, C2H2O2, C3H4O2
MIRO MGA - 10
In-situ measurements of CH4, CO2, N2O, CO, H2O, NO, NO2, SO2, NH3, O3
BAHAMAS - BAsic HAlo Measurement And Sensor system
Basic meteorological parameters such as pressure, temperature, 3-D wind vectors and aircraft attitude data
FOKAL
Monitoring the frequency stability of the CO2online wavelength of CHARM-F
meterologische Dropsonden
Relative humidity, temperature and pressure profiles
