OMPS/NPP PCA SO2 Total Column 1-Orbit L2 Swath 50x50km V2 (OMPS_NPP_NMSO2_PCA_L2)

This helps to more accurately account for the pixel-to-pixel variation in SO2 sensitivity due to different factors such as the vertical distribution of SO2, solar and viewing angles, surface reflectivity, and cloudiness. As compared with the previous OMPS_NPP_NMSO2_PCA_L2 V1.2 product that assumes the same SO2 sensitivity for all OMPS pixels, the new V2 anthropogenic SO2 retrievals have reduced retrieval biases especially over background regions (see Figure 1 for an example).

The same updated PCA SO2 retrieval algorithm (Li et al., 2020) is also used to produce the recently released OMSO2 V2 product (doi:10.5067/Aura/OMI/DATA2022). The new OMPS_NPP_NMSO2_PCA_L2 V2 product thus offers enhanced consistency between the NASA EOS standard (OMI) and continuity (OMPS) SO2 data records Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) is a short-lived gas primarily produced by volcanoes, power plants, refineries, metal smelting and burning of fossil fuels.

Where SO2 remains near the Earth's surface, it is toxic, causes acid rain, and degrades air quality. Where SO2 is lofted into the free troposphere, it forms aerosols that can alter cloud reflectivity and precipitation. In the stratosphere, volcanic SO2 forms sulfate aerosols that can result in climate change.