QA4ECV HCHO tropospheric column L2 data from OMI

The QA4ECV HCHO Essential Climate Variable precursor product contains harmonized HCHO tropospheric column densities.

The HCHO ECV precursor data in this dataset provides geophysical information for ground pixels observed by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI, aboard the EOS-Aura satellite; overpass time: circa 13:40 hrs) for the period October 2004 onwards. In addition to the tropospheric HCHO columns, the product contains intermediate results, such as the result of the spectral fit, fitting diagnostics, the averaging kernel, cloud information, and algorithm and product uncertainty estimates.

L3 daily and monthly grids, based on this L2 dataset, is distributed here https://doi.org/10.18758/h2v1uo6x.

Size: 26 MB per orbit
Size: 350 - 380 MB per day

NB: Years 2023 and 2024 are also provided, but as it is after the end of the mission,
some variables are missing. Please take those years as they are.

Data and Resources

Tags

Cite this as (APA format)

De Smedt, I., YU, H., Richter, A., Beirle, S., Eskes, H., Boersma, K. F., Van Roozendael, M., Van Geffen, J., Wagner, T., Lorente, A., & Peters, E. (2017). QA4ECV HCHO tropospheric column L2 data from OMI (Version 1) [Data set]. Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy. https://doi.org/10.18758/71021031
Retrieved: 09:24 24 Jan 2026 (UTC)
Users of this DOI are kindly encouraged to contact the author(s) for help and cooperation towards further successful utilisation.

Author(s)
Principal

De Smedt, Isabelleorcid, Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy
Other(s)

YU, Huanorcid, Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy; Richter, Andreas, Institute for Environmental Physics, University of Bremen (IUPB); Beirle, Steffen, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC); Eskes, Henk, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI); Boersma, K. Folkert, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI); Van Roozendael, Michel, Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy; Van Geffen, Jos, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI); Wagner, Thomas, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC); Lorente, Alba, Wageningen University and Research (WUR); Peters, Enno, Institute for Environmental Physics, University of Bremen (IUPB);
Contact data-contact of Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy

Technical info
Is referenced by

  • De Smedt, I., Theys, N., Yu, H., Danckaert, T., Lerot, C., Compernolle, S., Van Roozendael, M., Richter, A., Hilboll, A., Peters, E., Pedergnana, M., Loyola, D., Beirle, S., Wagner, T., Eskes, H., van Geffen, J., Boersma, K. F., and Veefkind, P.: Algorithm theoretical baseline for formaldehyde retrievals from S5P TROPOMI and from the QA4ECV project, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 2395–2426, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-2395-2018, 2018

  • De Smedt, I., Pinardi, G., Vigouroux, C., Compernolle, S., Bais, A., Benavent, N., Boersma, F., Chan, K.-L., Donner, S., Eichmann, K.-U., Hedelt, P., Hendrick, F., Irie, H., Kumar, V., Lambert, J.-C., Langerock, B., Lerot, C., Liu, C., Loyola, D., Piters, A., Richter, A., Rivera Cárdenas, C., Romahn, F., Ryan, R. G., Sinha, V., Theys, N., Vlietinck, J., Wagner, T., Wang, T., Yu, H., and Van Roozendael, M.: Comparative assessment of TROPOMI and OMI formaldehyde observations and validation against MAX-DOAS network column measurements, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12561–12593, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12561-2021, 2021.
Documentation

https://knmi.sitearchief.nl/?subsite=qa4ecv#archive
Is source of

Temporal features
Starting

01/01/2005
Ending

31/12/2022
Temporal resolution

P1D

Additional info
Funding details

QA4ECV: 607405 (by:) European Union Framework Program 7
Repository homepage

https://data.aeronomie.be/dataset/
Last Updated

January 13, 2026
Created

April 25, 2017

Spatial features

Resolution (m): 13000x25000