Retrieval and validation of ozone columns derived from measurements of SCIAMACHY on Envisat

This paper describes a new ozone column retrieval algorithm and the application to SCIAMACHY measurements. The TOSOMI algorithm is based on the Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) technique and implements several improvements over older algorithms. These improvements include aspects like (i) the explicit treatment of rotational Raman scattering, (ii) an improved air-mass factor formulation which is based on a simulation of the reflectivity spectrum and a subsequent DOAS fit of this simulated spectrum, (iii) the use of an improved ozone climatology and a column dependent air-mass factor, (iv) the use of daily varying ECMWF temperature profile analyses. The results of three validation exercises are reported. The TOSOMI columns are compared with an extensive set of ground-based observations (Brewer, Dobson) for the years 2003 and 2004. Secondly, a direct comparison for January-June 2003 with two new GOME retrievals, GDP version 4 and TOGOMI, is presented. Third, data assimilation is used to study the dependence of the TOSOMI columns with retrieval parameters such as the viewing angle, cloud fraction and geographical location. These comparisons show a good consistency on the percent level between the GOME and SCIAMACHY algorithms. The present TOSOMI implementation (v0.32) shows an offset of about -1.5% with respect to ground-based observations and the GOME retrievals.