A new technique for retrieval of tropospheric and stratospheric ozone profiles using sky radiance measurements at multiple view angles: Application to a Brewer spectrometer

Abstract

This paper describes and applies a new technique for retrieving diurnal variability in tropospheric ozone vertical distribution using ground‐based measurements of ultraviolet sky radiances. The measured radiances are obtained by a polarization‐insensitive modified Brewer double spectrometer located at Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA. Results demonstrate that the Brewer angular (0–72° viewing zenith angle) and spectral (303–320 nm) measurements of sky radiance in the solar principal plane provide sufficient information to derive tropospheric ozone diurnal variability. In addition, the Brewer measurements provide stratospheric ozone vertical distributions at least twice per day near sunrise and sunset. Frequent measurements of total column ozone amounts from direct‐sun observations are used as constraints in the retrieval. The vertical ozone profile resolution is shown in terms of averaging kernels to yield at least four points in the troposphere–low stratosphere, including good information in Umkehr layer 0 (0–5 km). The focus of this paper is on the derivation of stratospheric and tropospheric ozone profiles using both simulated and measured radiances. We briefly discuss the necessary modifications of the Brewer spectrometer that were used to eliminate instrumental polarization sensitivity so that accurate sky radiances can be obtained in the presence of strong Rayleigh scattering and aerosols. The results demonstrate that including a site‐specific and time‐dependent aerosol correction, based on Brewer direct‐sun observations of aerosol optical thickness, is critical to minimize the sky radiance residuals as a function of observing angle in the optimal estimation inversion algorithm and improve the accuracy of the retrieved ozone profile.