Abstract
Abstract. During its first year in operation the short-wave infrared (SWIR) Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) was calibrated in-flight and its performance was monitored. In this paper we present the results of the in-flight calibration and the ongoing instrument monitoring. This includes the determination of the background signals, noise performance, instrument spectral response function (ISRF) stability, and stray-light stability. From these results, the number of incurred dead and bad pixels due to cosmic-ray impacts is determined. The light-path transmission is checked by monitoring internal lamp and diffuser stabilities. Due to its high sensitivity to Earth radiation on the eclipse side, the calibration strategy for the background (i.e. dark current and offset) monitoring was adjusted. Trends over the first full year of nominal operations reveal a very stable SWIR module. The number of newly incurred dead and bad pixels is less than 0.1 % over nearly a full year since the start of operations. Assuming linear degradation of various components, the SWIR module is expected to keep performing within expected parameters for the full operational lifetime.
Highlights
The Sentinel-5 Precursor mission, is the first mission within the scope of the European Union Copernicus programme1 which is dedicated to mapping and monitoring the chemical composition1see http://www.copernicus.euof the Earth’s atmosphere
A raw Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI)-shortwave infrared (SWIR) signal consists of three components: an offset, which is independent of exposure time; a dark signal, which is dependent on exposure time; and an outside signal
When the data collected in the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) are excluded from the analysis, no orbital dependency of the dark signal is necessary
Summary
The Sentinel-5 Precursor mission (better known as S5P; Veefkind et al, 2012), is the first mission within the scope of the European Union Copernicus programme which is dedicated to mapping and monitoring the chemical composition. T. A. van Kempen et al.: In-flight calibration of the TROPOMI-SWIR module approximately 7 × 7 km at nadir. It is necessary to monitor the instrument calibration derived on the ground. This is carried out using measurements from the eclipse side of each orbit. For the SWIR module, monitoring is performed for the background signal, the instrumental noise, the quantification of the pixel quality, validation/monitoring of the instrumental spectral response function (ISRF), and stray-light correction. In this paper we will report on the results of the commissioning phase, the monitoring during the first full year of nominal operations, and provide an outlook regarding the durability and future performance of the SWIR module.
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