The DINAR (Development and Interpretation of Improved Nitrous Acid Retrievals) activity is a project funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) under the ATMOSPHERE SCIENCE CLUSTER - RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES 2 - EXPRO+, which aims at further exploiting the capability of satellite instruments to measure nitrous acid (HONO), and advancing our understanding of HONO in the atmosphere.
The DINAR project, proposed by the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB) and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), has been kicked-off on May, 1st 2022 and will last two years. Building upon first space observations of HONO in biomass burning plumes in the ultraviolet (Theys et al., 2020) and thermal infrared (Clarisse et al., 2011; De Longueville et al., 2021), the project objectives are manifold and can be listed as:
- Development of improved and documented HONO retrievals algorithms from satellite UV-visible instruments, TROPOMI, OMI and GEMS, and thermal infrared sensors, IASI and GIIRS.
- Scientific exploitation of space-based HONO data and validation.
- Atmospheric modelling of HONO and impact on chemistry.
- Dissemination of satellite output datasets.
- Establish scientific roadmap.
For more information on the project, contact Nicolas Theys (theys AT aeronomie.be)