Data products
Sulphur Dioxide
DESCRIPTION
Sulphur dioxide (SO2) enters the Earth’s atmosphere through both natural and anthropogenic processes. It plays a role in chemistry on a local and global scale and its impact ranges from short term pollution to effects on climate. Only about 30% of the emitted SO2 comes from natural sources; the majority is of anthropogenic origin. SO2 emissions adversely affect human health and air quality. SO2 has an effect on climate through radiative forcing, via the formation of sulphate aerosols. Volcanic SO2 emissions can also pose a threat to aviation, along with volcanic ash. S5P/TROPOMI samples the Earth’s surface with a revisit time of one day with unprecedented spatial resolution of 3.5 x 5.5 km which allows the resolution of fine details including the detection of much smaller SO2 plumes. Here below is an example of TROPOMI SO2 from 15 April 2021 when large amounts of SO2 were transported eastward from the La Soufrière volcanic eruption. If you look closely you can also see much smaller plumes emitted from Italy's Mt. Etna and South Africa's industrial highveld region. Read more about TROPOMI SO2 via this link.
| Version number | Version Effective Orbit Number and Date | Summary of Changes |
|---|---|---|
| OFFL: orbit 24655, 2022-07-17 NRTI: orbit 24697, 2022-07-20 |
Current version; New L1b |
|
|
2.03.00 |
OFFL: orbit 22768, 2022-03-06 NRTI: orbit 22813, 2022-03-09 |
Background correction improved |
|
2.02.01 |
OFFL: orbit 19258, 2021-07-01 NRTI: orbit 19308, 2021-07-05 |
updated L1b, see PRF |
USER DOCUMENTATION: ATBD, PUM, & README
Links to the Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD), the Product User Manual (PUM), and the Product Readme File (PRF) are located on the right of this page under Documentation. This data product was released in October 2018 and is now available on the Copernicus Open Data Access Hub (see link on the right). A supporting PUM for a priori profile data used for SO2 is also available here. The interested user can download a tool developed in Python for working with the TROPOMI a priori profiles used for NO2, SO2, and HCHO (see download link here below).