Preliminary Results of Cloud Property Retrieval Algorithm for TROPOMI Aboard Sentinel-5 Precursor
Lelli, Luca; Kokhanovsky, A.A.; Rozanov, V.V.; Vountas, M.; Burrows, J.P.
University of Bremen, GERMANY

In the framework of the GMES ESA initiative, the launch of the Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5-p) platform, foreseen in 2015, aims at monitoring atmospheric constituents in support of climate studies and policymaking. The S5-p payload comprises the TROPOMI spectrometer, whose spectral coverage spans from UV throughout SWIR, at moderate spectral and spatial resolution. In particular, the absorption band of molecular oxygen, centered at 761 nm, and the shortwave-infrared channel are used to retrieve cloud properties, such as top height, optical thickness, spherical albedo, effective radius and thermodynamic phase. This is achieved with analytical equations of radiative transfer (the asymptotic theory), implemented in the Semi-Analytical CloUd Retrieval Algorithm SACURA. The algorithm is applied to synthetically generated datasets as well as to selected SCIAMACHY data, which are representative of various climatological scenarios, illumination and viewing geometries. In addition, the feasibility of the SACURA approach for the retrieval of low-level dense aerosol layer height is explored.