Development of SCIAMACHY operational ESA level 2 products towards version 5 and beyond

Since the foundation of the SCIAMACHY Quality Working Group (SQWG) in a joint ESA-DLR-NIVR inter-agency effort in late 2006, the ESA operational Level 2 processor was significantly improved w.r.t. data quality and product range. During the last two years the product list was substantially enhanced by new (total columns of SO2, BrO, OClO, H2O, CO, Limb BrO profiles, Limb cloud flags) and improved products (total columns of O3, NO2, Absorbing Aerosol Index, Limb O3 profiles, Limb NO2 profiles).

For example, important improvements were achieved in the O3 and NO2 profile calculation by implementing an upgraded retrieval scheme and using now Level 1b version 7.0 data with an improved pointing correction. Nadir products of total column O3 and Absorbing Aerosol Index were improved by applying a radiometric degradation correction (m-factors) in the Level 1 to 2 processing step.