Evaluation of the performance of Suomi-NPP OMPS nadir mapper products using station measurements and OMI data

Satellite remote sensing technology provides the only viable means for global monitoring of atmosphere systems, such as ozone. The ozone mapping and profiler suite (OMPS) onboard Suomi-NPP satellite, which was launched in the year 2011, has a primary purpose of measuring ozone. Suomi-NPP has been on operation for more than 3 years, and it is crucial to keep the satellite data precise and trusted. By using 17 months of satellite and ground-based total ozone column (TOC) data, this study performs an evaluation of OMPS products. Ozone monitoring instrument (OMI) data generated from a similar satellite instrument were also used to compare with the OMPS TOC data, and both the TOC products were generated using TOMS version 8.5 (TOMS-V8.5) algorithm. The evaluation consists of intercomparisons with ground-based Brewer measurements, similar satellite instruments, and accuracy analysis as a function of time and solar zenith angle. Results show that after 3 years of operation, OMPS-derived TOC data still have good correlation (R² > 0.99, RMSE = 1.51 %) with ground-based measurements. The results also give some evidence that the OMPS TOC data have better accuracy than those from OMI using the same algorithm.