The Sentinel-5p TROPOMI L2_SO2 (NRTI and OFFL) sulphur dioxide column data are found in general good agreement with ground-based MAX-DOAS and PGN measurements and with other satellite observations from OMI and S-NPP OMPS. The bias and dispersion with respect to validation data are typically below 0.2 DU. From these comparisons it can be concluded that over polluted regions the mission requirements are fulfilled. Over volcanic plumes the requirement on the bias is fulfilled, while the dispersion can exceed slightly the requirement on the random component of the uncertainty. Here it should be noted that detailed validation of SO2 in volcanic plumes based on ground based observations is still lacking.
In April 2023, the whole SO 2 data set was reprocessed with the new processor version 02.04.01. The reprocessed SO2 data show very good agreement with previous versions.