Validation of MIPAS-ENVISAT NO2 operational data

G. Wetzel, A. Bracher, B. Funke, F. Goutail, F. Hendrick, J.-C. Lambert, S. Mikuteit, C. Piccolo, M. Pirre, A. Bazureau, C. Belotti, T. Blumenstock (+13 others)
2007 Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics  
The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) instrument was launched aboard the environmental satellite ENVISAT into its sun-synchronous orbit on 1 March 2002. The short-lived species NO 2 is one of the key target products of MIPAS that are operationally retrieved from limb emission spectra measured in the 5 ACPD Abstract Introduction Conclusions References Tables Figures ◭ ◮ ◭ ◮ Back Close Full Screen / Esc Printer-friendly Version Interactive Discussion EGU ation over
more » ... the whole comparison period remains within 10%. A mean negative bias of 15% for MIPAS daytime and 8% for nighttime observations has been determined for UV-vis comparisons over Harestua (60 • N). Results of a pole-to-pole comparison of ground-based DOAS/UV-visible sunrise and MIPAS mid-morning column data has shown that the mean agreement in 2003 falls within the accuracy limit of the compar-5 ison method. Altogether, it can be indicated that MIPAS NO 2 profiles yield valuable information on the vertical distribution of NO 2 in the lower and middle stratosphere (below about 45 km) during day and night with an overall accuracy of about 10-20% and a precision of typically 5-15% such that the data are useful for scientific studies. In cases where extremely high NO 2 occurs in the mesosphere (polar winter) retrieval 10 results in the lower and middle stratosphere are less accurate than under undisturbed atmospheric conditions.
doi:10.5194/acp-7-3261-2007 fatcat:7rc6jammi5bnlk7ecx7vnr2uyu