Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor Routine Validation

Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor (S-5P) is the first of a series of atmospheric chemistry missions within the European Commission’s Copernicus Programme, launched successfully in October 2017 and since end April 2018 in its operational phase. S-5P provides continuity in the availability of global atmospheric data products between its predecessor missions SCIAMACHY (Envisat) and OMI (AURA) and the future Sentinel-4 and -5 series. S-5P delivers unique data regarding the sources and sinks of trace gases with a focus on the lower Troposphere including the planet boundary layer due to its enhanced spatial, temporal and spectral sampling capabilities as compared to its predecessors.

The S-5P satellite carries a single payload, namely TROPOMI (TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument) that was jointly developed by The Netherlands and ESA. Covering spectral channels in the UV, visible, near- and short-wave infrared, it measures various key species including tropospheric/stratospheric ozone, NO2, SO2, CO, CH4, CH2O as well as cloud and aerosol parameters.

The geophysical validation and characterization of the TROPOMI data products during the phase E2 is conducted by ESA at different levels. The so-called Mission Performance Center carries out the routine validation throughout the mission life-time and rely on the availability of independent data sets for example from ground-based measurements or the so-called Fiducial Reference Measurement data sets, as well as the contributions from independent national Validation Teams coordinated by ESA under the Sentinel 5 Precursor Validation Team (S5PVT).

The current status of the ESA S-5P routine Validation activities will be discussed in this paper.