Parallel measurements of formaldehyde (H2CO) at the Jungfraujoch station: preliminary FTIR results and first comparison with Max-DOAS data

In the framework of the NORS project, a retrieval strategy for formaldehyde (H2CO) is currently under development, using measurements from ground-based high-resolution FTIR solar spectra recorded at the NDACC high altitude station of the Jungfraujoch (Swiss Alps, 46.5° N, 8.0° E, 3580m a.s.l.). According to the preliminary results, our FTIR retrieval strategy based on Tikhonov regularization has proven able to make an improvement in the process of fitting the H2CO feature within the 2833.070 – 2833.350 cm-1 microwindow from Jungfraujoch solar spectra, compared to a simple scaling. Furthermore, the retrieved total columns present a seasonal cycle averaged over 2005 – 2013 in agreement with preliminary results from UV-visible MAX-DOAS observations, ACE-FTS occultation measurements and simulations from the IMAGES and GEOS-CHEM models. However, FTIR H2CO abundances appear to be underestimated during summertime, with respect to the other data sets. In order to solve this issue, further experiments are planned.