WP 4: Satellite validation

Leaders: H. Oelhaf, S. Payan

Balloons are the only tools to provide accurate measurements of a comprehensive number of species from the troposphere right up to about 35 km with sufficient vertical resolution. Balloon data when used in the right way have proven to be indispensable for the validation of satellite instruments.
The focus will be on validation of the ENVISAT chemistry instruments. Balloon-borne observations have provided an indispensable contribution to the validation of Envisat's chemistry instruments as has become obvious during the ACVE-1, ACVE-2, and ACVE-3 Envisat validation conferences and in related publications, mainly in the first two to three years of ENVISAT. After that only sparse data sets have become available. Recently, the lifetime of Envisat has been secured until 2013. Follow-up activities to secure continuation of the validation process during the whole ENVISAT lifetime are thus necessary. In addition, in the case of MIPAS a completely new operation mode along with new processor versions has become necessary since 2005. Moreover, SCIAMACHY and MIPAS have widened their range of products which need to be validated. Some participants of this proposal are members of the MIPAS and/or SCIAMACHY quality Working and/or Science Teams, and GOMOS P.-I.
Most or even all trace gases measured by GOMOS, SCIAMACHY, and MIPAS are also measured by the balloon instruments proposed. In addition, information on temperature, aerosol, and clouds is provided (see Table below).

Satellite experiment Main measured parameters
MIPAS-E temperature, aerosols, O3, N2O, NO, NO2, HOCl, ClO, H2O, H2O2, CH4, CO, CFC-12, CFC-11, CFC-22, CCl4, CF4, c2H2, C2H6, BrONO2 and others
SCIAMACHY temperature, O3, BrO, OClO, ClO, SO2, H2CO, NO, NO2, NO3, CO, CO2, CH4, N2O, H2O
GOMOS temperature, aerosols, O2, O3, NO2, NO3 and H2O
Parameters measured by the various satellite sensors that can be validated by balloon sensors of this project. The focus in this project will be on validating parameters highlighted with bold characters.