Abstract. This paper presents a comprehensive characterization of a very deep stratospheric intrusion which occurred over the British Isles on 15 August 2007. The signature of this event is diagnosed using ozonesonde measurements over Lerwick, UK (60.14 • N, 1.19 • W) and is also well characterized using meteorological analyses from the global operational weather prediction model of Météo-France, ARPEGE. Modelled as well as assimilated fields of both ozone (O 3 ) and carbon monoxide (CO) have been used in order to better document this event. O 3 and CO from Aura/MLS and Terra/MOPITT instruments, respectively, are assimilated into the three-dimensional chemical transport model MOCAGE of Météo-France using a variational 3-D-FGAT (First Guess at Appropriate Time) method. The validation of O 3 and CO assimilated fields is done using selfconsistency diagnostics and by comparison with independent observations such as MOZAIC (O 3 and CO), AIRS (CO) and OMI (O 3 ). It particularly shows in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere region that the assimilated fields are closer to MOZAIC than the free model run. The O 3 bias between MOZAIC and the analyses is −11.5 ppbv with a RMS of 22.4 ppbv and a correlation coefficient of 0.93, whereas between MOZAIC and the free model run, the corresponding values are 33 ppbv, 38.5 ppbv and 0.83, respectively. In the same way, for CO, the bias, RMS and correlation coefficient between MOZAIC and the analyses are −3.16 ppbv, 13 ppbv and 0.79, respectively, whereas between MOZAIC Correspondence to: L. El Amraoui (laaziz.elamraoui@meteo.fr) and the free model they are 6.3 ppbv, 16.6 ppbv and 0.71, respectively. The paper also presents a demonstration of the capability of O 3 and CO assimilated fields to better describe a stratosphere-troposphere exchange (STE) event in comparison with the free run modelled O 3 and CO fields. Although the assimilation of MLS data improves the distribution of O 3 above the tropopause compared to the free model run, it is not sufficient to reproduce the STE event well. Assimilated MOPITT CO allows a better qualitative description of the stratospheric intrusion event. The MOPITT CO analyses appear more promising than the MLS O 3 analyses in terms of their ability to capture a deep STE event. Therefore, the results of this study open the perspectives for using MOPITT CO in the STE studies.

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Abstract. This paper presents observing system simulation experiments (OSSEs) to compare the relative capabilities of two geostationary thermal infrared (TIR) instruments to measure ozone (O 3 ) and carbon monoxide (CO) for monitoring air quality (AQ) over Europe. The primary motivation of this study is to use OSSEs to assess how these infrared instruments can constrain different errors affecting AQ hindcasts and forecasts (emissions, meteorology, initial condition and the 3 parameters together). The first instrument (GEO-TIR) has a configuration optimized to monitor O 3 and CO in the lowermost troposphere (LmT; defined to be the atmosphere between the surface and 3 km), and the second instrument (GEO-TIR2) is designed to monitor temperature and humidity. Both instruments measure radiances in the same spectral TIR band. Results show that GEO-TIR could have a significant impact (GEO-TIR is closer to the reference atmosphere than GEO-TIR2) on the analyses of O 3 and CO LmT column. The information added by the measurements for both instruments is mainly over the Mediterranean Basin and some impact can be found over the Atlantic Ocean and Northern Europe. The impact of GEO-TIR is mainly above 1 km for O 3 and CO but can also improve the surface analCorrespondence to: M. Claeyman (marine.claeyman@aero.obs-mip.fr) yses for CO. The analyses of GEO-TIR2 show low impact for O 3 LmT column but a significant impact (although still lower than for GEO-TIR) for CO above 1 km. The results of this study indicate the beneficial impact from an infrared instrument (GEO-TIR) with a capability for monitoring O 3 and CO concentrations in the LmT, and quantify the value of this information for constraining AQ models.

Abstract. This paper describes the capabilities of a nadir thermal infrared (TIR) sensor proposed for deployment onboard a geostationary platform to monitor ozone (O 3 ) and carbon monoxide (CO) for air quality (AQ) purposes. To assess the capabilities of this sensor we perform idealized retrieval studies considering typical atmospheric profiles of O 3 and CO over Europe with different instrument configuration (signal to noise ratio, SNR, and spectral sampling interval, SSI) using the KOPRA forward model and the KOPRA-fit retrieval scheme. We then select a configuration, referred to as GEO-TIR, optimized for providing information in the lowermost troposphere (LmT; 0-3 km in height). For the GEO-TIR configuration we obtain ∼1.5 degrees of freedom for O 3 and ∼2 for CO at altitudes between 0 and 15 km. The error budget of GEO-TIR, calculated using the principal contributions to the error (namely, temperature, measurement error, smoothing error) shows that information in the LmT can be achieved by GEO-TIR. We also retrieve analogous profiles from another geostationary infrared instrument with SNR and SSI similar to the Meteosat Third Generation Infrared Sounder (MTG-IRS) which is dedicated to numerical weather prediction, referred to as GEO-TIR2. We quantify the added value of GEO-TIR over GEO-TIR2 for a realistic atmosphere, simulated using the chemistry transport model MOCAGE (MOdèle de Chimie Atmospheriquè a Grande Echelle). Results show that GEO-TIR is ableCorrespondence to: M. Claeyman (marine.claeyman@aero.obs-mip.fr) to capture well the spatial and temporal variability in the LmT for both O 3 and CO. These results also provide evidence of the significant added value in the LmT of GEO-TIR compared to GEO-TIR2 by showing GEO-TIR is closer to MOCAGE than GEO-TIR2 for various statistical parameters (correlation, bias, standard deviation).