Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AURORA (Advanced Ultraviolet Radiation and Ozone Retrieval for Applications)

Teaser

The many instruments aboard Copernicus atmospheric Sentinel missions (S-5P, S-4 and S-5) can be exploited to monitor the profile of ozone concentration in the Earth’s atmosphere with unprecedented accuracy and timeliness. As the most important radiatively active gas in the...

Summary

The many instruments aboard Copernicus atmospheric Sentinel missions (S-5P, S-4 and S-5) can be exploited to monitor the profile of ozone concentration in the Earth’s atmosphere with unprecedented accuracy and timeliness.
As the most important radiatively active gas in the stratosphere and short-lived climate forcer, oxidizing agent and pollutant in the troposphere, ozone shall be measured from the surface to the mesosphere. This cannot be done by a single instrument, due to limited capability of remote sounding in an assigned spectral region and observation geometry. It could be achieved by merging information of multiple measurements of the same target.
AURORA project demonstrates that the synergistic use of geostationary (GEO) and low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite sensors data in different frequency ranges is a viable strategy for full, vertical ozone profiling.
A novel approach, based on assimilation of GEO and LEO fused products with the application of an innovative algorithm to S-4 and S-5 synthetic data, is adopted to assess quality of the unique ozone vertical profile obtained in a context simulating the operational environment. The vertical distribution is used to calculate tropospheric ozone column and UV surface radiation, thus focusing on lower atmosphere layers.
A technological infrastructure, exploiting virtual machines and cloud data sharing, is created to implement the data processing chain with a geo-database and web-services for data access. The infrastructure represents a best practice that plays a key role in ensuring wider use of Copernicus Sentinel data for academia and industry. It is the basis for a market analysis for pre-market applications and uptake in commercial communities. Strategic dissemination and exploitation is targeted to European level (academia, CAMS, GEOSS, thanks to existing, strategic contacts) and international level (TEMPO and GEMS, in USA and ASIA, who investigate synergy and data exchange).

Work performed

The activity of WP2 aimed at the preparation of the first release of the AURORA Requirements Document (D2.1) was conducted under the coordination of the Principal Investigator and with contributions from all partners of the Consortium. Based on the information available at the current stage about the Sentinel-4 and Sentinel-5 missions, an overall assessment of specifications and requirements was made covering the main aspects necessary to implement the AURORA data processing chain as described in the project proposal. These included:
- The generation of atmospheric scenarios necessary for the simulation of atmospheric Sentinels data products;
- The collection of instruments characteristics and observation geometry data
- The specification of the set of parameters requested for the simulation of data from the LEO and GEO sounders in the Ultraviolet, Visible and Thermal Infrared regions;
- The assessment of specifications and requirements for data fusion and data assimilation and forecast, for the AURORA products related to Tropospheric Ozone and UV surface radiation;
- The definition of the Requirements for the AURORA Technological Infrastructure (i.e. the Geo-database, the specific tools for data interface, the web services tools, the data visualization tools, and the Prototype Data Processo for the integration of the different components);
- The definition of the Requirements for Exploitation Activities;
- The definition of the Requirements for Management Procedures.

Final results

The first issue of the Requirement Document represent a key step forward for the AURORA project, as it implied an in depth discussion among the partners to gain a better insight into the input and output data, as well as into the tools to be used and implemented during the project, both at the level of single work-package, as well as from the point of view of interactions occurring at system level, with definition of trade-offs and critical choices involving two or more partners.
The current version of the Requirement Document provides a complete set of information (apart from specific aspects that might be evaluated at a later stage of the project, as for instance the comined use of Sentinel 4 data with the operational products of the TEMPO and GEMS missions), but may be also reviewed in case the value of any parameter (in particular those related to the S-4 and S-5 satellites or instruments) is changed. At present, the Consortium envisages at least one updated release of the Requirements Document.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.aurora-copernicus.eu/.