Long-term observations of NO using GEMS in China: Validations and regional transport.

In 2019, South Korea launched the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) to observe trace gases with an hourly temporal resolution. Compared to previous payloads on polar-orbiting satellites, the GEMS payload has significant advantages in detecting the diurnal variation characteristics of NO. However, there is still a lack of ground-based validations regarding the overall accuracy of GEMS in the Chinese region. In this study, we conducted a systematic ground validation of GEMS NO data in China for the first time. We validated the accuracy of GEMS NO data in four typical pollution regions in China, namely the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region (JJJ), the Yangtze River Delta region (YRD), the Pearl River Delta region (PRD), and the Sichuan Basin region (SCB), based on MAX-DOAS and CNEMC data. The averaged correlations using the two datasets for validation were 0.81 and 0.57, respectively, indicating a high level of accuracy for the data in China. Using the GEMS seasonal averaged NO data, we studied the distribution of NO levels in the four regions. We found that the highest NO in all four regions occurred during winter with concentrations of 1.84 × 10 molecules cm, 1.59 × 10 molecules cm, 1.58 × 10 molecules cm and 9.47 × 10 molecules cm, respectively. The distribution of NO was closely related to the terrain. Additionally, we observed a significant underestimation issue with TROPOMI, exceeding 30 % in many regions. Based on MAX-DOAS, we investigated the vertical distribution of NO in the four regions and found that NO was mainly concentrated below 0.5 km. with the HNU station having the lowest concentration, averaging only 2.12 ppb, which was approximately 41 % of the highest concentration recorded at the CQ station. Furthermore, we conducted a study on regional and cross-regional transport using a combination of MAX-DOAS and GEMS data. We found that the transport flux of NO could increase by over 500 % within 1 h, making a significant contribution to local NO concentrations. The joint observations of GEMS and MAX-DOAS will provide reliable data support for NO research and control in China, making a substantial contribution to environmental protection and sustainable development.