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Principal Investigator (PI): Gonzalo Gonzalez Abad, Smithsonian Institution/Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

This five-year study will develop long-term (27.5-year) Earth System Data Records (ESDRs) of global formaldehyde, glyoxal, and water vapor vertical column densities. We will produce unified, coherent, and validated long-term ESDRs from July 1995 to November 2022 by applying our well-established retrieval algorithms to measurements in the ultraviolet and visible spectral regions (325-480 nm) from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME), SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY), Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2A (GOME-2A), GOME-2B, and Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) satellite instruments.

These ESDRs will be generated in NASA Earth Science Data System standard HDF-EOS5 file format. All data products will include key ancillary information including retrieval quality flags, vertical sensitivity information (scattering weights), retrieval errors, a priori information (vertical profiles and surface properties), and cloud information. To ensure the uniformity, coherence and high quality of these proposed ESDRs, substantial effort will be devoted to the following:

  • Using consistent retrieval algorithms across instruments and generating standardized outputs;
  • Deriving an improved solar irradiance reference, performing accurate wavelength and instrument response function calibrations, and removing noise by appropriate averaging;
  • Homogenizing a priori information in air mass factor;
  • Optimizing retrievals consistency across instruments and time using overlapping time periods and through validation, intercomparison, and analysis of background values;
  • Developing consistent global maps of regularly gridded ESDRs (level 3).

To significantly facilitate the usage of these long-term ESDRs, and to seek community scrutiny, review, and feedback of product quality and acceptability during the duration of the proposal, we will host a dedicated web server. Through it we will distribute our new consistent Level 2 retrievals and monthly gridded Level 3 data along with reading, sub-setting, and gridding software.

We will also support ongoing data system evolution efforts through active participation in the activities of Earth Science Data System Working Groups (ESDSWG), and support on-going improvement of instrument calibration through active participation in instrument scientific advisory group meetings and scientific meetings.

This research will directly benefit future similar ESDRs derived using low Earth orbit (LEO) measurements from the U.S. operational Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) missions, European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites Metop-C, Sentinel-5P, Sentinel 5, and the global constellation of air quality geostationary satellites, Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring Pollution (TEMPO), Global and regional Earth-system (atmosphere) Monitoring using Satellite and in-situ data (GEMS) from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, and Sentinel-4 (European Space Agency). These improved long-term ESDRs address all of the five research questions within the NASA Atmospheric Composition Roadmap.