Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 4 6 2004 10.5194/acpd-4-7513-2004 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/4/7513/2004/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/4/7513/2004/acpd-4-7513-2004.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/4/7513/2004/acpd-4-7513-2004.pdf 7513 7540 2004-11-12 Validation of SCIAMACHY tropospheric NO₂-columns with AMAXDOAS measurements K.-P. Heue A. Richter T. Wagner M. Bruns J. P. Burrows C. v. Friedeburg W. D. Lee U. Platt I. Pundt P. Wang Institut für Umweltphysik, Universität Heidelberg, INF 229, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, P.O. 330440, 28334 Bremen, Germany Vertical and slant tropospheric NO<sib>2</sub>-columns from the new satellite instrument SCIAMACHY on ENVISAT are validated by measurements of the Airborne Multi AXis DOAS (AMAXDOAS) instrument on board the DLR&nbsp;Falcon. The results presented here were obtained in February 2003 on a flight over the Alps, the Po-Valley and the Mediterranean. The tropospheric vertical column measured by AMAXDOAS varied between 12.8 and 27.2*10¹⁵ molec/cm² over the Po-Valley where SCIAMACHY data resulted in 14.4 to 27.5*10¹⁵ molec/cm². Over less polluted areas a similarly good agreement was found. The overall correlation between the two datasets results in a slope of the linear fit of 0.89. The slight differences observed might be attributed to the different spatial resolution and the temporal mismatch between the measurements over the Po-Valley.