Formaldehyde Products from the OMPS Nadir Mappers on Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20

Formaldehyde is one of the most abundant non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) in the troposphere. Enhanced levels of ambient formaldehyde can result from the oxidation of NMVOCs from biogenic, anthropogenic and pyrogenic activities, as well as from direct emission by industrial activity and fires. Formaldehyde can be detected using nadir sounding satellite instruments measuring backscattered light in the ultraviolet. Its short lifetime of a few hours means that formaldehyde measured by satellite instruments can be used as a proxy of NMVOC reactivity, and as a top-down constraint on isoprene emissions.

The Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) nadir-viewing instruments on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi-NPP) and NOAA-20 satellites operate in the ultraviolet with spatial resolutions at nadir between 50 km x 50 km (OMPS/Suomi NPP) and 12 km x 17 km (OMPS/NOAA-20). The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory is developing consistent formaldehyde products for these two OMPS instruments, using well-established algorithms developed for the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) operational formaldehyde product and the future Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) geostationary instrument. We present results from the OMPS formaldehyde measurements, validation with coincident airborne and ground-based observations, and inter-comparisons with formaldehyde products from other satellites.