Are there urban signatures in the tropospheric ozone column products derived from satellite measurements?

Abstract

Abstract. In view of the proposed geostationary satellite missions to monitor air quality from space, it is important to first assess the capability of the current suite of satellite instruments to provide information on the urban scale pollution. We explore the possibility of detecting urban signatures in the tropospheric column ozone data derived from TOMS/SBUV and OMI/MLS satellite data. We find that distinct isolated plumes of tropospheric ozone near several large and polluted cities around the world may be detected in these data sets. The ozone plumes generally correspond with the tropospheric column NO2 plumes around these cities as observed by the SCIAMACHY instrument. Similar plumes are also seen in tropospheric mean ozone mixing ratio distribution after accounting for the surface and tropopause pressure variations. The total column ozone retrievals indicate fairly significant sensitivity to the lower troposphere over the polluted land areas, which might help explain these detections. These results indicate that UV measurements may, in principle, be able to capture the urban signatures and may have implications for future missions using geostationary satellites.

The Ozone Monitoring Instrument: overview of 14 years in space

“…15, have been developed using either OMI measurements alone or in conjunction with other satellite measurements to improve sensitivity to near-surface ozone (e.g., Bowman, 2013;Cuesta et al, 2013;Hache et al, 2014) as summarized below. They have been used in tropospheric research (e.g., Sauvage et al, 2007;Ziemke et al, 2010;Cooper et al, 2014), for example to show evidence of decadal increases or trends in global tropospheric ozone, El Nino events during Aura (e.g., Chandra et al, 2009;Blunden and Ardnt, 2016), the 1-2 month Madden-Julian oscillation , and references therein), and urban pollution (Kar et al, 2010). It will be possible to employ similar approaches with other advanced sensors such as TROPOMI Figure 13.…”

Emissions estimation from satellite retrievals: A review of current capability

“…Indeed, the potential of satellite NO 2 observations to yield information about the size, shape, land use, and dynamics of an urban area has prompted a new breed of demographic/socioeconomic studies, exemplified by Bechle et al (2011) and Novotny et al (2011). For urban studies outside North America, the reader can consult satellite analyses of cities worldwide (Clerbaux et al, 2008;Kar et al, 2010), in Europe and the Middle East (Konovalov et al, 2010), in the eastern Mediterranean (Kanakidou et al, 2011), and in southeastern Europe (Zyrichidou et al, 2009). Beirle et al (2011) used OMI measurements over eight large urban agglomerations to probe the lifetime of NO x , with an eye to elucidating the formation of urban O 3 .…”

Assessment and applications of NASA ozone data products derived from Aura OMI/MLS satellite measurements in context of the GMI chemical transport model

“…The anomalous warming in summer 2010 was associated with a persistent subsidence in the region and associated anticyclonic circulation. Kar et al [2010] showed that OMI/MLS tropospheric ozone has signatures of pollution in urban areas. However, while some urban regions showed local enhancement of tropospheric ozone, other urban regions did not.…”