Sensitivity study for mapping the sulfur dioxide distributions with Ozone and Pollution measuring Ultraviolet Spectrometer (OPUS)

NASDA has been conducting an extended phase-A study on the Ozone and Pollution measuring Ultraviolet Spectrometer (OPUS), which is a nadir-looking, cross-track scanning ultraviolet spectrograph. OPUS was formerly named Ozone Dynamics Ultraviolet Spectrometer (ODUS). OPUS measures the backscattered solar radiation for the region between 306 and 420 nm with sampling step of 0.5 nm. It observes distributions of atmospheric ozone, sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and other parameters including aerosols. In this paper, (1) a feasibility of the retrieval of total column SO₂ is examined, and (2) a preliminary result on SO₂ measurement using airborne spectrograph is demonstrated.