Understanding greenhouse gases: Insights from the CoMet airborne missions using lidar complemented by passive-remote-sensing, and in-situ instruments

In 2018, the CoMet series of airborne missions was launched under the auspices of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). From this point onward, large-scale field campaigns are organized regularly every few years, in collaboration with partner institutions, to understand the anthropogenic and natural fluxes of the greenhouse gases CO2 and CH4, using the German research aircraft HALO. In addition to scientific objectives, the CoMet field campaigns aim to promote technological developments necessary for new and future Earth observation satellites, validate current greenhouse gas satellite measurements, and prepare new satellite missions, in particular the upcoming German-French methane lidar mission MERLIN. One of the core instruments of CoMet is the IPDA lidar CHARM-F, which was developed at DLR as an airborne demonstrator, testbed, and validation tool for MERLIN.