GOSAT-2009 methane spectral line list in the 5550–6236 cm  1 range A.V. Nikitin a , O.M. Lyulin a , S.N. Mikhailenko a , V.I. Perevalov a,Ã , N.N. Filippov b , I.M. Grigoriev b , I. Morino c , T. Yokota c , R. Kumazawa d , T. Watanabe d a Laboratory of Theoretical Spectroscopy, V.E. Zuev Institute of Atmospheric Optics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 1, Academician Zuev square, 634021 Tomsk, Russia b Department of Physics, Saint-Petersburg State University, Peterhof, 198504 St. Petersburg, Russia c National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305–8506, Japan d Toray Research Center Inc. 3-3-7 Sonoyama, Otsu, Shiga 520-8567, Japan article info Article history: Received 27 February 2010 Received in revised form 6 May 2010 Accepted 6 May 2010 Keywords: Methane Spectral line list Near-infrared GOSAT abstract A methane spectral line list for the 5550–6236 cm 1 range with the intensity cut off 4  10 26 cm/molecule at 296 K is presented. The line list is based on new extensive measurements of methane spectral line parameters performed at different tempera- tures and pressures of methane and buffer gases N 2 ,O 2 and air. This spectral line list is prepared in HITRAN-2008 format and contains the following spectral line parameters of about 11,000 lines: position, intensity, energy for lower state (where possible), air-broadening and air-shifting coefficients, exponent of temperature dependence of air-broadening coefficient and self-broadening coefficient. & 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Methane (CH 4 ), like water and carbon dioxide, is an important greenhouse gas. Nowadays many groups in the world are performing continuous monitoring of several greenhouse gases including methane in the Earth’s atmo- sphere. For these purposes in January 2009 the Japanese Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) was launched. The main aim of this mission is to measure the column amounts and profiles of the concentration of carbon dioxide and methane over the globe from space [1]. Two types of sensors are installed on GOSAT. The Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observation Fourier Transform Spectrometer (TANSO-FTS) detects the solar light reflected on the Earth’s surface as well as the thermal radiance emitted from the surface and the atmosphere. The TANSO Cloud and Aerosol Imager (TANSO-CAI) is a radiometer to detect optically thick clouds and correct the effects of optically thin clouds and aerosol. Details of GOSAT sensors have already been described in Ref. [2]. The first, preliminary result obtained with GOSAT TANSO-FTS SWIR was reported in Ref. [3]. The absorption band of CH 4 at 1.67 mm is chosen to retrieve the methane column. But, as we discussed in our previous paper [4], the set of CH 4 spectral line parameters contained in the HITRAN-2004 database [5] for this region was not complete and some of the parameters, in particular, the broadening and shifting parameters were not good enough because they were extrapolated from the measurements performed for lower frequency regions. For this reason we have undertaken systematic studies of the spectral line parameters of the methane molecule in the 5550–6236 cm 1 range. Based on these studies, in 2008 the GOSAT methane spectral line list was prepared but has not been published. In this paper we publish a slightly modified version of this spectral line list. It should be emphasized that since that time, new measurements of line positions, line intensities and N 2 broadening Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jqsrt Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer 0022-4073/$ - see front matter & 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jqsrt.2010.05.010 Ã Corresponding author E-mail address: vip@lts.iao.ru (V.I. Perevalov). Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer 111 (2010) 2211–2224