First Global Maps of Stratospheric and Tropospheric NO2 from OMI

The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) was launched successfully in July 2004, as one of four instruments on the EOS Aura satellite. OMI makes hyperspectral measurements that are used to retrieve column densities of critical trace gases, including formaldehyde, BrO, SO2 and NO2 . We present the first results from the OM1 operational NO2 algorithm and demonstrate its ability to retrieve the tropospheric and stratospheric components of NO2. The DOAS method is used to determine slant column densities, and initial air mass factors (AMFs) are used. to give initial estimates of the vertical column densities (VCDs). VCDs from up to 15 consecutive orbits are collected, and a spatial filtering technique is applied to extract the synoptic-scale features characteristic of the stratospheric, field. features to be evidence of tropospheric excess NO2 , and apply an AMF appropriate to polluted conditions, to obtain an improved retrieval of the NO2 total VCD. We describe the assumptions underlying the algorithm in detail, and show global maps of NO2 VCDs, based on the first operational data from OMI.