The added value of a visible channel to a geostationary thermal infrared instrument to monitor ozone for air quality

Abstract. Ozone is a tropospheric pollutant and plays a key role in determining the air quality that affects human wellbeing. In this study, we compare the capability of two hypothetical grating spectrometers onboard a geostationary (GEO) satellite to sense ozone in the lowermost troposphere (surface and the 0–1 km column). We consider 1 week during the Northern Hemisphere summer simulated by a chemical transport model, and use the two GEO instrument configurations to measure ozone concentration (1) in the thermal infrared (GEO TIR) and (2) in the thermal infrared and the visible (GEO TIR+VIS). These configurations are compared against each other, and also against an ozone reference state and a priori ozone information. In a first approximation, we assume clear sky conditions neglecting the influence of aerosols and clouds. A number of statistical tests are used to assess the performance of the two GEO configurations. We consider land and sea pixels and whether differences between the two in the performance are significant. Results show that the GEO TIR+VIS configuration provides a better representation of the ozone field both for surface ozone and the 0–1 km ozone column during the daytime especially over land.