Abstract. This overview paper highlights the successes of the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on board the Aura satellite spanning a period of nearly 14 years. Data from OMI has been used in a wide range of applications and research resulting in many new findings. Due to its unprecedented spatial resolution, in combination with daily global coverage, OMI plays a unique role in measuring trace gases important for the ozone layer, air quality, and climate change. With the operational very fast delivery (VFD; direct readout) and near real-time (NRT) availability of the data, OMI also plays an important role in the development of operational services in the atmospheric chemistry domain.

Retrievals of sulfur dioxide (SO2) from space‐based spectrometers are in a relatively early stage of development. Factors such as interference between ozone and SO2 in the retrieval algorithms often lead to errors in the retrieved values. Measurements from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY), and Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment‐2 (GOME‐2) satellite sensors, averaged over a period of several years, were used to identify locations with elevated SO2 values and estimate their emission levels. About 30 such locations, detectable by all three sensors and linked to volcanic and anthropogenic sources, were found after applying low and high spatial frequency filtration designed to reduce noise and bias and to enhance weak signals to SO2 data from each instrument. Quantitatively, the mean amount of SO2 in the vicinity of the sources, estimated from the three instruments, is in general agreement. However, its better spatial resolution makes it possible for OMI to detect smaller sources and with additional detail as compared to the other two instruments. Over some regions of China, SCIAMACHY and GOME‐2 data show mean SO2 values that are almost 1.5 times higher than those from OMI, but the suggested spatial filtration technique largely reconciles these differences.

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Abstract. This paper presents extensive bias determination analyses of ozone observations from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) satellite instruments: the ACE Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) and the Measurement of Aerosol Extinction in the Stratosphere and Troposphere Retrieved by Occultation (ACE-MAESTRO) instrument. Here we compare the latest ozone data products from ACE-FTS and ACE-MAESTRO with coincident observations from nearly 20 satellite-borne, airborne, balloonborne and ground-based instruments, by analysing volume mixing ratio profiles and partial column densities. The ACE-FTS version 2.2 Ozone Update product reports more ozone than most correlative measurements from the upper troposphere to the lower mesosphere. At altitude levels from 16 to 44 km, the average values of the mean relative differences are nearly all within +1 to +8%. At higher altitudes (45-60 km), the ACE-FTS ozone amounts are significantly larger than those of the comparison instruments, with mean relative differences of up to +40% (about +20% on average). For the ACE-MAESTRO version 1.2 ozone data product, mean relative differences are within ±10% (average values within ±6%) between 18 and 40 km for both the sunrise and sunset measurements. At higher altitudes (∼35-55 km), systematic biases of opposite sign are found between the ACE-MAESTRO sunrise and sunset observations. While ozone amounts derived from the ACE-MAESTRO sunrise occultation data are often smaller than the coincident observations (with mean relative differences down to −10%), the sunset occultation profiles for ACE-MAESTRO show results that are qualitatively similar to ACE-FTS, indicating a large positive bias (mean relative differences within +10 to +30%) in the 45-55 km altitude range. In contrast, there is no significant systematic difference in bias found for the ACE-FTS sunrise and sunset measurements.

We apply an optimal estimation algorithm originally developed for retrieving ozone profiles from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) to make global observations of sulfur dioxide from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment 2 (GOME‐2) on the MetOp‐A satellite. Our approach combines a full radiative transfer calculation, retrieval algorithm, and trace gas climatologies to implicitly include the effects of albedo, clouds, ozone, and SO2 profiles in the retrieval. Under volcanic conditions, the algorithm may also be used to directly retrieve SO2 plume altitude. Retrieved SO2 columns over heavy anthropogenic pollution typically agree with those calculated using a two‐step slant column and air mass factor approach to within 10%. Retrieval uncertainties are quantified for GOME‐2 SO2 amounts; these are dominated by uncertainty contributions from noise, surface albedo, profile shape, correlations with other retrieved parameters, atmospheric temperature, choice of wavelength fitting window, and aerosols. When plume altitudes are also simultaneously retrieved, additional significant uncertainties result from uncertainties in the a priori altitude, the model's vertical layer resolution, and instrument calibration. Retrieved plume height information content is examined using the Mount Kasatochi volcanic plume on 9 August 2008. An a priori altitude of 10 km and uncertainty of 2 km produce degrees of freedom for signal of at least 0.9 for columns >30 Dobson units. GOME‐2 estimates of surface SO2 are compared with in situ annual means over North America in 2008 from the Clear Air Status and Trends Network (CASTNET; r = 0.85, N = 65) and Air Quality System (AQS) and National Air Pollution Surveillance (NAPS; r = 0.40, N = 438) networks.

[1] We present an assessment study of the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment 2 (GOME-2) reflectance for the wavelength range 270-350 nm by comparing measurements with simulations calculated using the vector linearized discrete ordinate radiative transfer model (VLIDORT) and Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) ozone profiles. The results indicate wavelength-and cross-track-position-dependent biases. GOME-2 reflectance is overestimated by 10% near 300 nm and by 15%-20% around 270 nm. Stokes fraction measurements made by onboard polarization measurement devices are also validated directly using the VLIDORT model. GOME-2 measurements agree well with the simulated Stokes fractions, with mean biases ranging from À1.0% to $2.9%; the absolute differences are less than 0.05. Cloudiness-dependent biases suggest the existence of uncorrected stray-light errors that vary seasonally and latitudinally. Temporal analysis indicates that reflectance degradation began at the beginning of the mission; the reflectance degrades by 15% around 290 nm and by 2.2% around 325 nm from 2007 through 2009. Degradation shows wavelength-and viewing-angle-dependent features. Preliminary validation of ozone profile retrievals with MLS, Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding, and ozonesonde reveals that the application of radiometric recalibration improves the ozone profile retrievals as well as reduces fitting residuals by 30% in band 2b.

A method is developed to estimate global NO2 and SO2 dry deposition fluxes at high spatial resolution (0.1°×0.1°) using satellite measurements from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the Aura satellite, in combination with simulations from the Goddard Earth Observing System chemical transport model (GEOS‐Chem). These global maps for 2005–2007 provide a data set for use in examining global and regional budgets of deposition. In order to properly assess SO2 on a global scale, a method is developed to account for the geospatial character of background offsets in retrieved satellite columns. Globally, annual dry deposition to land estimated from OMI as NO2 contributes 1.5 ± 0.5 Tg of nitrogen and as SO2 contributes 13.7 ± 4.0 Tg of sulfur. Differences between OMI‐inferred NO2 dry deposition fluxes and those of other models and observations vary from excellent agreement to an order of magnitude difference, with OMI typically on the low end of estimates. SO2 dry deposition fluxes compare well with in situ Clear Air Status and Trends Network‐inferred flux over North America (slope = 0.98, r = 0.71). The most significant NO2 dry deposition flux to land per area occurs in the Pearl River Delta, China, at 13.9 kg N ha−1 yr−1, while SO2 dry deposition has a global maximum rate of 72.0 kg S ha−1 yr−1 to the east of Jinan in China's Shandong province. Dry deposition fluxes are explored in several urban areas, where NO2 contributes on average 9–36% and as much as 85% of total NOy dry deposition.

Abstract. The Geostationary Trace gas and Aerosol Sensor Optimization (GeoTASO) airborne instrument is a test bed for upcoming air quality satellite instruments that will measure backscattered ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared light from geostationary orbit. GeoTASO flew on the NASA Falcon aircraft in its first intensive field measurement campaign during the Deriving Information on Surface Conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality (DISCOVER-AQ) Earth Venture Mission over Houston, Texas, in September 2013. Measurements of backscattered solar radiation between 420 and 465 nm collected on 4 days during the campaign are used to determine slant column amounts of NO 2 at 250 m × 250 m spatial resolution with a fitting precision of 2.2 × 10 15 molecules cm −2 . These slant columns are converted to tropospheric NO 2 vertical columns using a radiative transfer model and trace gas profiles from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Total column NO 2 from GeoTASO is well correlated with ground-based Pandora observations (r = 0.90 on the most polluted and cloud-free day of measurements and r = 0.74 overall), with GeoTASO NO 2 slightly higher for the most polluted observations. Surface NO 2 mixing ratios inferred from GeoTASO using the CMAQ model show good correlation with NO 2 measured in situ at the surface during the campaign (r = 0.85). NO 2 slant columns from GeoTASO also agree well with preliminary retrievals from the GEO-CAPE Airborne Simulator (GCAS) which flew on the NASA King Air B200 (r = 0.81, slope = 0.91). Enhanced NO 2 is resolvable over areas of traffic NO x emissions and near individual petrochemical facilities.