In September 2014 a Pandora multi-spectral photometer operated by the SAGE-III project was sent to Lauder, New Zealand to operate side-by-side with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research's (NIWA) Network for Detection of atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) standard zenith slant column NO<sub>2</sub> instrument to allow intercomparison between the two instruments, and evaluation of the Pandora unit as a potential SAGE-III validation tool for stratospheric NO<sub>2</sub>. This intercomparison spanned a full year, from September 2014–September 2015. Both datasets were produced using their respective native algorithms using a common reference spectrum (i.e. 12:00 on 26 February 2015). Throughout the entire deployment period both instruments operated in a zenith-only observation configuration. Though conversion from slant column density (SCD) to vertical-column density is routine (by application of an air mass factor), we limit the current analysis to SCD only. This omission is beneficial in that it provides a strict intercomparison of the two instruments and the retrieval algorithms as opposed to introducing an AMF-dependence in the intercomparison as well. It was observed that the current hardware configurations and retrieval algorithms are in good agreement (R > 0.95). The detailed results of this investigation are presented herein.