Abstract:
The second release of collection 3 OMI/Aura Level-2 NO2 data product OMNO2 is now available (http://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/Aura/OMI/omno2_v003.shtml ) to public and science community from the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC).
The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) was launched aboard the EOS-Aura satellite on July 15, 2004(1:38 pm equator crossing ... time, ascending mode). OMI with its 2600 km viewing swath width provides almost daily global coverage. OMI is a contribution of the Netherlands Space Office (NSO) in collaboration with Finish Meterological Institute (FMI), to the US EOS-Aura Mission. The principal investigator's (Dr. Pieternel Levelt) institute is the KNMI (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute). OMI is designed to monitor stratospheric and tropospheric ozone, clouds, aerosols and smoke from biomass burning, SO2 from volcanic eruptions, and key tropospheric pollutants (HCHO, NO2) and ozone depleting gases (OClO and BrO). OMI sensor counts, calibrated and geolocated radiances, and all derived geophysical atmospheric products are archived at the NASA Goddard DAAC.
The Nitrogen Dioxide Product 'OMNO2' contains slant column NO2 (total amount along the optical path from the sun into the atmosphere, and then toward the satellite), the total vertical column NO2, the estimated tropospheric contribution to the total NO2 column, NO2 column hidden by any clouds in the OMI field of view, and other ancillary data.
Nitrogen dioxide is an important chemical species in both the stratosphere, where it plays a key role in ozone chemistry, and in the troposphere, where it is a precursor to ozone production. In the troposphere, it is produced in various combustion processes and in lightning and is an indicator of poor air quality.
The shortname for this Level-2 OMI total column NO2 product is OMNO2 and the algorithm leads for this product are NASA OMI scientist Dr. Nickolay A. Krotkov and KNMI Scientist Dr.Pepijn J. Veefkind.
OMNO2 files are stored in EOS Hierarchical Data Format (HDF-EOS5). Each file contains data from the day lit portion of an orbit (~53 minutes). There are approximately 14 orbits per day. The maximum file size for the OMNO2 data product is about 15 Mbytes.
A short OMNO2 Readme Document that includes brief algorithm description and a document that provides known data quality related issues are also provided by the OMNO2 Algorithm leads (see http://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/Aura/OMI/omno2_v003.shtml)
The OMNO2 data file contains one swath which consists of two groups:
Data fields: Slant Column NO2 (total amount along the optical path from the sun into the atmosphere and then toward the satellite), The Total Vertical Column NO2, and the Estimated Tropospheric Contribution to the Total Column NO2, and Other Ancillary Data including Data Quality Flags, Measures of Precision, Quality Assurance (QA) information.
Geolocation Fields: Latitude, Longitude, Time, Relative Azimuth, Solar Zenith andAzimuth, Viewing Zenith and Azimuth angles, Spacecraft Altitude, Latitude, Longitude, Terrain Height, Ground Pixel Quality Flags.
Quality
The current product is the second public release in collecton 003. It is based on an improved NO2 retrieval algorithm. For details, please see documents provided on OMNO2 data archive site: http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/Aura/OMI/omno2_v003.shtml
Use Constraints
This Data set (version 003/second public release) is better than the earlier version but it is not fully validated yet. Before using it in any publication please contact algorithm team lead for the current known problems and updates and see data quality documents available at the product information site http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/Aura/OMI/omno2_v003.shtml
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