Development and verification of SCIAMACHY operational ESA Level 2 version 6/7 products

Abstract

The SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) aboard Envisat observed the Earth’s atmosphere in nadir, limb and solar/lunar occultation geometries covering the UV-Visible to NIR (240-2380 nm) spectral range with a moderate spectral resolution of 0.2-1.5nm. The instrument provided decade long coverage (2002-2012) of various atmospheric parameters from the troposphere up to the mesosphere. These decadal datasets are important building blocks for long term assessments of climate relevance. The SCIAMACHY Quality Working Group (SQWG), formed in 2007, aims at improving the quality of the operational data products. University of Bremen (IUP), BIRA, DLR-IMF, SRON and KNMI are the members providing expertise in this group. Since the establishment of SQWG, the ESA operational Level 2 processor was significantly improved w.r.t. data quality and the product list was substantially enhanced with new parameters. The current project builds on the heritage of previous SQWG projects and has the following objectives: update the Level 0-2 processing chain, deliver the processor baseline enabling the generation of a quality controlled Level 1b and Level 2 dataset for the whole mission and to ensure long-term usability of the data. The SQWG Level 2 team is working on the improvement and implementation of processor Version 6 and the future Version 7. Under the SQWG framework, the main focus is on the following products: in nadir mode, total columns of O3, NO2, CO, IO and the tropospheric columns of NO2, and O3 (from limb-nadir matching) and the tropospheric columns of BrO and HCHO and, in limb, the aerosol and water vapour profiles and cloud flagging improvement and implementation. Here we present the key results of SCIAMACHY Level 2 Version 6 and Version 7 implementation and verification activities.