Cloud parameter retrieval for Environmental trace gases Monitoring Instrument (EMI) using the O2-O2 absorption band

This study proposes an improved cloud parameter retrieval algorithm for the existing cloud parameter algorithm of the Environmental trace gases Monitoring Instrument (EMI) using the collision complex of the oxygen (O2-O2) absorption feature. The main improvements are the evaluation of the impact of temperature on the O2-O2 slant column densities (SCDs), and the well-corrected EMI measured reflectance. The cloud parameters will help improve the accuracy of EMI trace gas retrievals. The O2-O2 SCDs were fitted based on EMI-observed radiances and solar irradiance, and the impact of temperature on the O2-O2 SCD was evaluated. A simulated reflectance look-up table (LUT), as well as the O2-O2 SCD LUT, were established through the SCIATRAN radiative transfer model. Reflectance and O2-O2 SCD LUTs are functions of effective cloud fraction (ECF) and cloud pressure (CP), which can be inverted to ECF and CP LUTs. On this basis, the EMI ECF and CP were obtained using the EMI observation geometric information, EMI measured reflectance, and O2-O2 SCD to interpolate the ECF and CP LUTs. To evaluate the results, we performed an inter-comparison between the EMI cloud parameters, TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) cloud products, Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) CP, and ground-based lidar cloud altitude. Of them, the one-day global ECF and CP of EMI and TROPOMI exhibited good agreement; the correlation coefficients were 0.925 and 0.866, respectively. Additionally, EMI was closer to the CALIOP results when the cloud pressure was >600 hPa. The comparison with the ground-based lidar cloud altitude also yielded good agreement during the continuous observation period from September 21 to November 10, 2019. The results prove that the improved EMI cloud retrieval algorithm could provide effective cloud products for EMI trace gas inversion.