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Clouds effect on the Atmospheric Total Column Carbon Dioxide Retrieval by Space Orbiting Argus 1000 Micro-spectrometer: Introductory Study

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is one of the most important greenhouse gases after water vapor (H2O) which plays significant role in the climate process. Accurate space-based measurement of CO2 is of great significance in inferring the location of CO2 sources and sinks. Uncertainties in greenhouse gases (GHG) retrieval process must be minimized to accurately infer the actual amount of the atmospheric species. Clouds pose a large uncertainty in CO2 space-based retrieval process leading, mostly, to an underestimation in the CO2 absorption amount above the cloud layer provided that photons do not perform multiple paths. In this paper, three different cases of data collected over cloudy and clear skies by Argus 1000 micro-spectrometer were analyzed. Findings show that the CO2 absorption in the absence of clouds is approximately 4.5% higher than when clouds are present.