Improved NH3 retrievals from IASI

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30 January 2018

Van Damme et al. (2017) just published a paper presenting an improved version (v2.1) of the neural-network-based algorithm for retrieving atmospheric ammonia (NH3) columns from IASI satellite observations. Two datasets using different input data for the retrieval are described: one is based on the operationally provided EUMETSAT Level 2 (ANNI-NH3-v2.1), and the other uses the ECMWF ERA-Interim data (ANNI-NH3-v2.1R-I). Analyses illustrate well that the (meteorological) input data can have a large impact on the retrieved NH3 columns.

Example retrievals of the morning NH3 column (molec cm−2) over south Asia for the reanalysed retrieval (ANNI-NH3-v2.1RI, bottom row) vs. the standard near-real-time retrieval (ANNI-NH3-v2.1, top row) on 29 September 2014 (input data from Eumetsat L2 v5.3.1), 1 October 2014 (L2 v6.0) and 1 October 2016 (L2 v6.2). (Van Damme et al., 2017)

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