HARMONISED VALIDATION SYSTEM FOR TROPOSPHERIC OZONE AND OZONE PROFILE RETRIEVALS FROM GOME TO THE COPERNICUS SENTINELS

Abstract

This work outlines the principles and implementation procedures of a harmonised QA/validation system for assessing the quality of atmospheric composition data. The system now runs in pre-operational mode at BIRAIASB, following a generic and fully traceable flow of operations. The system’s broad applicability to virtually all (partial) column and profile datasets is demonstrated here by evaluation activities within ESA’s Ozone_cci project. However, ozone data validation as envisaged in the upcoming S5PVT AO project “CHEOPS-5p” and for the future Copernicus Sentinel missions raises a number of additional challenges, foremost regarding the expected amount of data to be handled. We therefore provide a perspective on current developments of the validation system to address those challenges and make it evolve into a fast operational phase.