Evaluation of long‐term tropospheric NO₂ data obtained by GOME over East Asia in 1996–2002

Long‐term tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) column data obtained by the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) ( G ‐NO 2 ) are evaluated to confirm the trends found in tropospheric NO 2 abundances over East Asia between 1996 and 2002. For three locations in Central and East Asia, the G ‐NO 2 values are compared with tropospheric columns estimated from coincident observations of total NO 2 by ground‐based UV/visible spectrometers and stratospheric NO 2 by satellite solar occultation sensors ( E ‐NO 2 ). The comparisons show a slight linear drift in G ‐NO 2 data from 1996 to 2002. However, it is much smaller than the standard deviation of the differences between G ‐NO 2 and E ‐NO 2 and much smaller than the increasing trends in NO 2 seen by GOME over the industrial areas of China, demonstrating the validity of the trends estimated using the GOME data.