Validating NO2 measurements in the vertical atmospheric column with the OMI instrument aboard the EOS Aura satellite against ground-based measurements at the Zvenigorod Scientific Station

Abstract

Data on the NO2 content in the vertical column of the atmosphere obtained with the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) aboard the EOS Aura satellite (United States) in the period from October 2004 to October 2007 are compared with the results of ground-based measurements at the Zvenigorod Scientific Station (55.7° N, 36.8° E). The “unpolluted”; part of the total NO2 content in the atmospheric column, which mostly represents the stratosphere, and the NO2 contents in the vertical column of the troposphere, including the lower layer, which is subject to pollution, are included in the comparison. The correlation coefficient between the results of ground-based and satellite measurements of the “unpolluted” total NO2 content is ∼0.9. The content values measured with the OMI instrument are smaller than the results of ground-based measurements (on average, by (0.30 ± 0.03) × 1015 cm−2 or by (11 ± 1)%). Therms discrepancy between the satellite and ground-based data is 0.6 × 1015 cm−2. The NO2 content in the vertical column of the troposphere from the results of satellite measurements is, on average, (1.4 ± 0.5) × 1015 cm−2, (or about 35%) smaller than from the results of ground-based measurements, and the rms discrepancy between them is about 200%. The correlation coefficient between these data is ∼0.4. This considerable discrepancy is evidently caused by the strong spatial (horizontal) inhomogeneity and the temporal variability of the NO2 field during episodes of pollution, which leads to different (and often uncorrelated) estimates of the NO2 content in the lower troposphere due to different spatial resolutions of ground-based and satellite measurements.