Detail Project and Funding

Abstract: The Sentinel-5 Precursor (S-5p) mission with the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument payload has been launched on 13 October 2017. S-5p is the first mission of the Copernicus Programme dedicated to perform atmospheric measurements, with high spatio-temporal resolution, relating to air quality, climate, ozone and UV radiation.

The new sensor technology and retrieval approaches, as well as the much finer spatial resolution introduces many new opportunities and challenges, requiring to carefully assess the quality and validity of the generated data products by comparison with independent measurements and analyses. Independent validation provides credibility to the overall mission and allows users to assess the end-to-end mission performance and data product quality.

A series of S-5p validation campaigns (2020-2022), funded by and in close collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and Copernicus, the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme, are in progress. Most activities have been defined in the S-5p Campaign Implementation Plan (S-5p CIP), established to address key validation priorities. The quality (uncertainty and error characterisation) of a wide range of relevant parameters to air quality and climate, will be assessed. This will be done under different geophysical conditions (polluted vs background sites, low vs high albedo sites, summer vs winter season, etc.) by comparison with independent reference observations, acquired by ground-based and airborne instruments. Additionally, intermediate products, such as slant column densities (SCDs) will be assessed.

Instrument COLD2, measuring carbon monoxide, was integrated onbord the WB-57 aircraft, belonging to NASA, at the airport of Ellington Field, Houston TX, in february 2022, for a test flight. The measurement campaign took place from the american base in Osan, near Seoul, july 27 – september 2, 2022, preceded by other tests in Texas.

Data analysis has been completed. Final version of data is available in the archive https://www-air.larc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/ArcView/acclip#VICIANI.SILVIA/.