Validation of geostationary environment monitoring spectrometer (GEMS), TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), and Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite Nadir Mapper (OMPS) using pandora measurements during GEMS Map of Air Pollution (GMAP) field campaign

Abstract

This study presents the validation of total column ozone (TCO) data retrieved from the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) against ground-based Pandora spectrometer observations during the GEMS Map of Air Pollution (GMAP) campaign from November 2020 to January 2021 in Seosan, South Korea. To evaluate the accuracy of the Pandora TCO measurements obtained during the campaign period, all Pandora instruments were installed at the Seosan supersite for intercomparison analysis. Subsequently, the instruments were relocated to four sites for direct sunlight measurements. The Pandora instruments exhibited a high degree of consistency with an average difference of 0.5 ± 1.0 DU. This study demonstrated that accurate comparison of ground-based ozone measurements with satellite ozone measurements depended on the threshold values set for the spatial and temporal alignment of the two datasets and the size of the satellite footprint and viewing angle. The comparison of the GEMS, TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), and Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite Nadir Mapper (OMPS) satellite TCO with the Pandora TCO showed high agreement across measurements. However, a distinct downward trend was observed in the Mean Bias (MB) for GEMS from December–January, indicating an issue with the GEMS Level 1C irradiance. The validation using hourly Pandora data demonstrated GEMS capability to monitor daily ozone variations but with a bias of approximately −1% to −2.6% compared with that of Pandora.