GEOPHYSICAL VALIDATION OF SCIAMACHY NO_2 VERTICAL COLUMNS: OVERVIEW OF EARLY 2004 RESULTS

摘要

Following the recommendations drawn after thernCommissioning Phase of the ENVISAT satellite inrn2002, SCIAMACHY near real time data processorsrnwere upgraded to version 5.01 in early 2004. Beforernpublic release of the new SCIAMACHY nitrogenrndioxide (NO_2) vertical column data product, severalrnvalidation teams investigated its improvement andrnassessed its geophysical consistency by means ofrncorrelative studies involving NDSC-affiliated groundbasedrnnetworks of DOAS UV-visible and FTIRrnspectrometers and the ERS-2 GOME satellite. Inrnparallel, preliminary SCIAMACHY NO_2 column datarnproducts generated by research processors underrndevelopment at scientific institutes were also tested,rnusing the same correlative data and validationrnprocedures. Digesting the results obtained by a list ofrnvalidation teams and SCIAMACHY data processingrnteams, this overview paper draws a preliminary qualityrnassessment of the SCIAMACHY NO_2 column data setsrnavailable in spring 2004.