Overview of Early Results from TROPOMI on the Copernicus Sentinel 5 Precursor (Speaker Pepijn Veefkind)

Speaker Pepijn Veefkind (R&D Satellite Observations) Pepijn Veefkind, Quintus Kleipool, Antje Ludewig, Ilse Aben, Diego Loyola, Herbert Nett, Andreas Richter, Michel van Roozendael, Richard Siddans, Thomas Wagner, Pieternel Levelt

On 13 October 2017 the Copernicus Sentinel 5 Precursor (S5P), the first of the European Sentinels satellites dedicated to monitoring of the atmospheric composition, was launched. The mission objectives of S5P are to globally monitor air quality, climate and the ozone layer, in the time period between 2017 and 2023. The first 6 months of the mission is used for special observations to commission the system. The operational phase will start in April of this year.

The single payload of the S5P mission is TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), which is developed by The Netherlands in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA). TROPOMI is a nadir viewing shortwave spectrometer that measures in the UV-visible wavelength range (270-500 nm), the near infrared (710-770 nm) and the shortwave infrared (2314-2382 nm).

A major step forward of TROPOMI compared to its predecessors OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) and SCIAMACHY (Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography) is the spatial resolution. For most of the UV-visible bands TROPOMI has a spatial resolution of 3.5x7 km2 at nadir and 7x7 km2 for the shortwave infrared. The high spatial resolution is combined with a wide swath that allows for daily global coverage. The TROPOMI/S5P geophysical (Level 2) operational data products include nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone (total column, tropospheric column & profile), methane, sulfur dioxide, formaldehyde and aerosol and cloud parameters.

The S5P will fly in a so-called loose formation with the U.S. Suomi NPP (National Polar-orbiting Partnership) satellite. The primary objective for this formation flying is to use the cloud clearing capabilities of the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite). The temporal separation between TROPOMI and VIIRS is less than 5 minutes. This formation has been enables synergistic data products and scientific research potentials.

In this contribution, we will present an overview of the TROPOMI mission and results obtained early in the mission.