Remote Sensing Measurements at a Rural Site in China: Implications for Satellite NO2 and HCHO Measurement Uncertainty and Emissions From Fires

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and formaldehyde (HCHO) play vital roles in atmospheric photochemical processes. Their tropospheric vertical column density (TVCD) distributions have been monitored by satellite instruments. Evaluation of these observations is essential for applying these observations to study photochemistry. Assessing satellite products using observations at rural sites, where local emissions are minimal, is particularly useful due in part to the spatial homogeneity of trace gases. In this study, we evaluate OMI and TROPOMI NO2 and HCHO TVCDs using multi‐axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy (MAX‐DOAS) measurements at a rural site in the east coast of the Shandong province, China in spring 2018 during the Ozone Photochemistry and Export from China Experiment (OPECE) measurement campaign. On days not affected by local burning, we found generally good agreement of NO2 data after using consistent a priori profiles in satellite and MAX‐DOAS retrievals and accounting for low biases in scattering weights in one of the OMI products. In comparison, satellite HCHO products exhibited weaker correlations with MAX‐DOAS data, in contrast to satellite NO2 products. However, TROPOMI HCHO products showed significantly better agreement with MAX‐DOAS measurements compared to OMI data. Furthermore, case studies of the vertical profiles measured by MAX‐DOAS on burning days revealed large enhancements of nitrous acid (HONO), NO2, and HCHO in the upper boundary layer, accompanied with considerable variability, particularly in HONO enhancements. Plain Language Summary We compared satellite NO2 and HCHO tropospheric vertical columns (TVCDs), that is, the integrated column concentrations from the surface to the top of the troposphere, from OMI and TROPOMI instruments with ground‐based MAX‐DOAS measurements in spring 2018 at a rural coastal site in China. Our results on non‐burning days indicate good agreement between satellite products and MAX‐DOAS measurements for NO2 TVCDs, albeit with some biases in one of the products. Potential factors contributing to the biases in that satellite product are investigated. Satellite HCHO products, however, did not compare as well with MAX‐DOAS data as satellite NO2 products, although TROPOMI HCHO products showed better agreement with MAX‐DOAS data than OMI HCHO products. We further analyzed MAX‐DOAS observations of HONO and HCHO on days with nearby agricultural burning activities. We found that HONO, NO2, and HCHO can be sig