Since January 2017 continuous multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) observations have been performed for the first time at Pantnagar (29.03°N, 79.47°E), a semi-urban site located in the Indo-Gangetic Plain region in India.Here we report the formaldehyde (HCHO), glyoxal (CHOCHO), and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) concentrations for the lowest layer (0−1 km) of the retrieved vertical profiles. The ratio of CHOCHO to HCHO concentrations (R GF ), an important tracer indicative of changes in volatile organic compound emissions was estimated. During spring and autumn enhanced concentrations of HCHO and CHOCHO were observed under the influence of biomass burning. The mean R GF for the whole observation period (January-November) in Pantnagar was estimated to be 0.029 ± 0.006. Comparing with similar MAX-DOAS observations in central Thailand and reported literature values, we found that the R GF tends to be < ~0.04 under the influence of biomass burning and/or anthropogenic emissions. (Citation: Hoque, H. M. S., H. Irie, A. Damiani, P. Rawat, and M. Naja, 2018: First simultaneous observations of formaldehyde and glyoxal by MAX-DOAS in the Indo-Gangetic Plain region. SOLA, 14, 159−164,

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Abstract. Data from 242 ozonesondes launched from ARIES, Nainital (29.40∘ N, 79.50∘ E; 1793 m elevation), are used to evaluate the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) version 6 ozone profiles and total column ozone during the period 2011–2017 over the central Himalayas. The AIRS ozone products are analysed in terms of retrieval sensitivity, retrieval biases/errors, and ability to retrieve the natural variability in columnar ozone, which has not been done so far from the Himalayan region, having complex topography. For a direct comparison, averaging kernel information is used to account for the sensitivity difference between the AIRS and ozonesonde data. We show that AIRS has more minor differences from ozonesondes in the lower and middle troposphere and stratosphere with nominal underestimations of less than 20 %. However, in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS), we observe a considerable overestimation of the magnitude, as high as 102 %. The weighted statistical error analysis of AIRS ozone shows a higher positive bias and standard deviation in the upper troposphere of about 65 % and 25 %, respectively. Similarly to AIRS, the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) and the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) are also able to produce ozone peak altitudes and gradients successfully. However, the statistical errors are again higher in the UTLS region, which are likely related to larger variability in ozone, lower ozone partial pressure, and inadequate retrieval information on the surface parameters. Furthermore, AIRS fails to capture the monthly variation in the total column ozone, with a strong bimodal variation, unlike unimodal variation seen in ozonesondes and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). In contrast, the UTLS and the tropospheric ozone columns are in reasonable agreement. Increases in the ozone values of 5 %–20 % after biomass burning and during events of downward transport are captured well by AIRS. Ozone radiative forcing (RF) derived from total column ozone using ozonesonde data (4.86 mW m−2) matches well with OMI (4.04 mW m−2), while significant RF underestimation is seen in AIRS (2.96 mW m−2). The fragile and complex landscapes of the Himalayas are more sensitive to global climate change, and establishing such biases and error analysis of space-borne sensors will help us study the long-term trends and estimate accurate radiative budgets.