University of Leicester
Browse

Development and characterisation of a state-of-the-art GOME-2 formaldehyde air-mass factor algorithm

Download (8.57 MB)
journal contribution
posted on 2015-10-20, 08:53 authored by W. Hewson, M. P. Barkley, G. Gonzalez Abad, H. Bösch, T. Kurosu, R. Spurr, L. G. Tilstra
Space-borne observations of formaldehyde (HCHO) are frequently used to derive surface emissions of isoprene, an important biogenic volatile organic compound. The conversion of retrieved HCHO slant column concentrations from satellite line-of-sight measurements to vertical columns is determined through application of an air mass factor (AMF), accounting for instrument viewing geometry, radiative transfer, and vertical profile of the absorber in the atmosphere. This step in the trace gas retrieval is subject to large errors. This work presents the AMF algorithm in use at the University of Leicester (UoL), which introduces scene-specific variables into a per-observation full radiative transfer AMF calculation, including increasing spatial resolution of key environmental parameter databases, input variable area weighting, instrument-specific scattering weight calculation, and inclusion of an ozone vertical profile climatology. Application of these updates to HCHO slant columns from the GOME-2 instrument is shown to typically adjust the AMF by ±20 %, compared to a reference algorithm without these advanced parameterisations. On average the GOME-2 AMFs increase by 4 %, with over 70 % of locations having an AMF of 0–20 % larger than originally, largely resulting from the use of the latest GOME-2 reflectance product. Furthermore, the new UoL algorithm also incorporates a full radiative transfer error calculation for each scene to help characterise AMF uncertainties. Global median AMF errors are typically 50–60 %, and are driven by uncertainties in the HCHO profile shape and its vertical distribution relative to clouds and aerosols. If uncertainty on the a priori HCHO profile is relatively small (< 10 %) then the median AMF total error decreases to about 30–40 %.

Funding

This work was supported by the UK National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) and the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) (grants NE/G523763/1, NE/GE013810/2 and NE/D001471).

History

Citation

Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 2015, 8, pp. 4055-4074

Author affiliation

/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING/Department of Physics and Astronomy

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Published in

Atmospheric Measurement Techniques

Publisher

Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union

issn

1867-8548

eissn

1867-8548

Acceptance date

2015-09-11

Copyright date

2015

Available date

2015-10-20

Publisher version

http://www.atmos-meas-tech.net/8/4055/2015/amt-8-4055-2015.html

Notes

The Supplement related to this article is available online at doi:10.5194/amt-8-4055-2015-supplement.

Language

en

Usage metrics

    University of Leicester Publications

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Keywords

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC