Intercomparison of slant column measurements of NO₂ and O₄ by MAX-DOAS and zenith-sky UV and visible spectrometers

Howard K. Roscoe (1) , Michel van Roozendael (2) , C. Fayt (2) , A. Du Piesanie (3) , N. Abuhassan (4, 5) , C. Adams (6) , M. Akrami (6) , A. Cede (4, 5) , J. Chong (7) , K. Clémer (2) , U. Friess (8) , M. Gil Ojeda (9) , Florence Goutail (10) , R. Graves (11) , Alexandra Griesfeller (10) , K. Grossmann (8) , G. Hemerijckx (2) , F. Hendrick (2) , J. Herman (4, 5) , C. Hermans (2) , H. Irie (12) , P. V. Johnston (13) , Y. Kanaya (12) , K. Kreher (13) , R. Leigh (11) , A. Merlaud (2) , G. H. Mount (14) , M. Navarro (9) , H. Oetjen (15) , Andrea Pazmino (10) , M. Perez-Camacho (9) , E. Peters (16) , G. Pinardi (2) , O. Puentedura (9) , A. Richter (16) , A. Schönhardt (16) , R. Shaiganfar (17) , E. Spinei (14) , K. Strong (6) , H. Takashima (12) , T. Vlemmix (3) , M. Vrekoussis (16) , T. Wagner (17) , F. Wittrock (16) , M. Yela (9) , S. Yilmaz (8) , F. Boersma (3) , J. Hains (3) , M. Kroon (3) , A. Piters (3) , Y. J. Kim (7)

1 BAS - British Antarctic Survey
2 BIRA-IASB - Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy / Institut d'Aéronomie Spatiale de Belgique
3 KNMI - Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute
4 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
5 University of Maryland [College Park]
6 Department of Physics [Toronto]
7 GIST - Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology
8 Institut für Umweltphysik [Heidelberg]
9 INTA - Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial
10 STRATO - LATMOS
11 Department of Chemistry [Leicester]
12 RIGC - Research Institute for Global Change
13 NIWA - National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research [Lauder]
14 WSU Laboratory for Atmospheric Research
15 School of Chemistry [Leeds]
16 IUP - Institute of Environmental Physics [Bremen]
17 MPIC - Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie

In June 2009, 22 spectrometers from 14 institutes measured tropospheric and stratospheric NO₂ from the ground for more than 11 days during the Cabauw Intercomparison Campaign of Nitrogen Dioxide measuring Instruments (CINDI), at Cabauw, NL (51.97° N, 4.93° E). All visible instruments used a common wavelength range and set of cross sections for the spectral analysis. Most of the instruments were of the multi-axis design with analysis by differential spectroscopy software (MAX-DOAS), whose non-zenith slant columns were compared by examining slopes of their least-squares straight line fits to mean values of a selection of instruments, after taking 30-min averages. Zenith slant columns near twilight were compared by fits to interpolated values of a reference instrument, then normalised by the mean of the slopes of the best instruments. For visible MAX-DOAS instruments, the means of the fitted slopes for NO₂ and O₄ of all except one instrument were within 10% of unity at almost all non-zenith elevations, and most were within 5%. Values for UV MAX-DOAS instruments were almost as good, being 12% and 7%, respectively. For visible instruments at zenith near twilight, the means of the fitted slopes of all instruments were within 5% of unity. This level of agreement is as good as that of previous intercomparisons, despite the site not being ideal for zenith twilight measurements. It bodes well for the future of measurements of tropospheric NO₂, as previous intercomparisons were only for zenith instruments focussing on stratospheric NO₂, with their longer heritage.

Domaines: Physique Atmosphérique et Océanique [physics.ao-ph]; Océan, Atmosphère

Howard K. Roscoe, Michel van Roozendael, C. Fayt, A. Du Piesanie, N. Abuhassan, et al.. Intercomparison of slant column measurements of NO₂ and O₄ by MAX-DOAS and zenith-sky UV and visible spectrometers. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 2010, 3 (6), pp.1629-1646. ⟨10.5194/amt-3-1629-2010⟩. ⟨hal-00539217⟩