A method is described for the empirical determination of altitude range resolutions of ozone profiles obtained by differential absorption lidar (DIAL) analysis. The algorithm is independent of the implementation of the DIAL analysis, in particular of the type and order of the vertical smoothing filter applied. An interpretation of three definitions of altitude range resolution is given on the basis of simulations carried out with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ozone DIAL analysis program, SO3ANL. These definitions yield altitude range resolutions that differ by as much as a factor of 2. It is shown that the altitude resolution calculated by SO3ANL, and reported with all Jet Propulsion Laboratory lidar ozone profiles, corresponds closely to the full width at half-maximum of a retrieved ozone profile if an impulse function is used as the input ozone profile.

For approximately one month during October and November 1988 the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center mobile lidar system was brought to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Table Mountain Facility, to make side-byside measurements with the JPL lidar of stratospheric ozone concentration profiles. Measurements were made by both excimer laser DIAL systems on fifteen nights during this period. The results showed good agreement of the ozone profiles measured between 20- and 40-km altitude. This is the first (to the best of our knowledge) reported side-by-side measurement intercomparison of two stratospheric ozone lidar systems.