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Copyright Copernicus GmbH 2017

Abstract

The TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor (S-5P) platform will measure ultraviolet earthshine radiances at high spectral and improved spatial resolution (pixel size of 7km × 3.5km at nadir) compared to its predecessors OMI and GOME-2. This paper presents the sulfur dioxide (SO<sub>2</sub>) vertical column retrieval algorithm implemented in the S-5P operational processor UPAS (Universal Processor for UV/VIS Atmospheric Spectrometers) and comprehensively describes its various retrieval steps. The spectral fitting is performed using the differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) method including multiple fitting windows to cope with the large range of atmospheric SO<sub>2</sub> columns encountered. It is followed by a slant column background correction scheme to reduce possible biases or across-track-dependent artifacts in the data. The SO<sub>2</sub> vertical columns are obtained by applying air mass factors (AMFs) calculated for a set of representative a priori profiles and accounting for various parameters influencing the retrieval sensitivity to SO<sub>2</sub>. Finally, the algorithm includes an error analysis module which is fully described here. We also discuss verification results (as part of the algorithm development) and future validation needs of the TROPOMI SO<sub>2</sub> algorithm.

Details

Title
Sulfur dioxide retrievals from TROPOMI onboard Sentinel-5 Precursor: algorithm theoretical basis
Author
Theys, Nicolas; De Smedt, Isabelle; Yu, Huan; Danckaert, Thomas; Jeroen van Gent; Hörmann, Christoph; Wagner, Thomas; Hedelt, Pascal; Bauer, Heiko; Romahn, Fabian; Pedergnana, Mattia; Loyola, Diego; Michel Van Roozendael
Pages
119-153
Publication year
2017
Publication date
2017
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
ISSN
18671381
e-ISSN
18678548
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
1856468518
Copyright
Copyright Copernicus GmbH 2017