Intercomparison of daytime stratospheric NO₂ satellite retrievals and model simulations

This paper evaluates the agreement between stratospheric NO₂ retrievals from infrared limb sounders (Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) and High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS)) and solar UV/VIS backscatter sensors (Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography (SCIAMACHY) limb and nadir) over the 2005–2007 period and across the seasons.

The observational agreement is contrasted with the representation of NO₂ profiles in 3-D chemical transport models such as the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) and TM4. A conclusion central to this work is that the definition of a reference for stratospheric NO₂ columns formed by consistent agreement among SCIAMACHY, MIPAS and HIRDLS limb records (all of which agree to within 0.25 × 10¹⁵ molecules cm⁻² or better than 10%) allows us to draw attention to relative errors in other data sets, e.g., (1) WACCM overestimates NO₂ densities in the extratropical lower stratosphere, particularly in the springtime and over northern latitudes by up to 35% relative to limb observations, and (2) there are remarkable discrepancies between stratospheric NO2 column estimates from limb and nadir techniques, with a characteristic seasonally and latitudinally dependent pattern.