Global validation of SCIAMACHY limb ozone data (versions 2.9 and 3.0, IUP Bremen) using ozonesonde measurements

Abstract

Abstract. In this paper, the latest SCIAMACHY limb ozone scientific vertical profiles, namely the current V2.9 and the upcoming V3.0, are extensively compared with ozonesonde data from the World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre (WOUDC) database. The comparisons are made on a global scale from 2003 to 2011, involving 61 sonde stations. The retrieval processors used to generate V2.9 and V3.0 data sets are briefly introduced. The comparisons are discussed in terms of vertical profiles and stratospheric partial columns. Our results indicate that the V2.9 ozone profile data between 20 and 30 km are in good agreement with ground-based measurements, with less than 5 % relative differences in the latitude range of 90 • S-40 • N (with the exception of the tropical Pacific region, where an overestimation of more than 10 % is observed), which corresponds to less than 5 DU partial-column differences. In the tropics the differences are within 3 %. However, this data set shows a significant underestimation northwards of 40 • N (up to ∼ 15 %). The newly developed V3.0 data set reduces this bias to below 10 % while maintaining a good agreement southwards of 40 • N with slightly increased relative differences of up to 5 % in the tropics.

Tropical tropospheric ozone columns from nadir retrievals of GOME-1/ERS-2, SCIAMACHY/Envisat, and GOME-2/MetOp-A (1996–2012)

“…The bias between LNM and CCD tropospheric ozone could be partly explained by the overestimation of limb V2.9 ozone profiles used for LNM. The comparison with ozonesondes in the tropics shows a positive bias of 5 to 10 DU (Jia et al, 2015). The position of positive and negative biases seems to agree well with the ones for the limb profiles.…”

“…The position of positive and negative biases seems to agree well with the ones for the limb profiles. For the newest limb version 3.0, the seasonal variations in the time series are in better agreement with those from sonde data at most tropical stations (Jia et al, 2015). Limb V3.0 is planned to be used in the newest LNM tropospheric ozone dataset and an improvement in the agreement between the two methods is expected.…”

Deriving the slit functions from OMI solar observations and its implications for ozone-profile retrieval

“…Ozonesonde observations are widely used to validate satellite ozone-profile retrievals (Jiang et al, 2007;Worden et al, 2007;Froidevaux et al, 2008;Kroon et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2011;Jia et al, 2015;Huang et al, 2017a). We use the same global ozonesonde dataset described by Huang et al (2017a) but only during [2004][2005][2006][2007][2008].…”

Dynamically controlled ozone decline in the tropical mid-stratosphere observed by SCIAMACHY

“…Monthly mean O 3 (Jia et al, 2015) and NO 2 (Butz et al, 2006) we assumed that the random errors of zonal monthly means could be neglected. We chose the boundaries 60…”