Tropical Upper Tropospheric Ozone Volume Mixing Ratios Retrieved with the Cloud Slicing Method using SCIATRAN/GOME2 data: Methodology, Ozone Sonde Comparisons, and Verification of the new S-5P Operational Processor

Abstract

Ozone and cloud parameters (cloud fraction and cloud top height) were used to calculate ozone volume mixing ratios in the tropical upper troposphere with the cloud slicing method [Ziemke, 2001]. The retrieval algorithm S5P_TROPOZ_CSA will be used in the operational processing of the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on board the Sentinel 5 precursor (S5-P), which is expected to be launched in the middle of 2016. The method will be presented and results from SCIAMACHY/GOME-2 shown. Two retrieval schemes for ozone are available. Total ozone from WFDOAS [Coldewey-Egbers et al., 2005, Weber et al., 2005] of IUP Bremen and the operational ESA products for SCIAMACHY/ Envisat (2002-2012) and GOME-2/ MetOpA (2007-2015) measurements are used as input for the tropospheric ozone calculations and the results will be compared. Furthermore the tropospheric ozone dataset is verified using ozone sonde data from tropical stations. The scientific prototype retrieval code is currently being implemented in the operational processor at DLR. Both algorithms agree quite well as expected. Detailed comparisons are presented here.