Abstract
Abstract. A new ozone climatology, based on ozonesonde and satellite measurements, spanning the altitude region between the earth's surface and ~60 km is presented (TpO3 climatology). This climatology is novel in that the ozone profiles are categorized according to calendar month, latitude and local tropopause heights. Compared to the standard latitude–month categorization, this presentation improves the representativeness of the ozone climatology in the upper troposphere and the lower stratosphere (UTLS). The probability distribution of tropopause heights in each latitude–month bin provides additional climatological information and allows transforming/comparing the TpO3 climatology to a standard climatology of zonal mean ozone profiles. The TpO3 climatology is based on high-vertical-resolution measurements of ozone from the satellite-based Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (in 1984 to 2005) and from balloon-borne ozonesondes from 1980 to 2006. The main benefits of the TpO3 climatology are reduced standard deviations on climatological ozone profiles in the UTLS, partial characterization of longitudinal variability, and characterization of ozone profiles in the presence of double tropopauses. The first successful application of the TpO3 climatology as a priori in ozone profile retrievals from Ozone Monitoring Instrument on board the Earth Observing System (EOS) Aura satellite shows an improvement of ozone precision in UTLS of up to 10% compared with the use of conventional climatologies. In addition to being advantageous for use as a priori in satellite retrieval algorithms, the TpO3 climatology might be also useful for validating the representation of ozone in climate model simulations.
Highlights
The tropopause is the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere, two atmospheric layers that have dramatically different thermal stratification, static stability, and chemical composition
The first successful application of the TpO3 climatology as a priori in ozone profile retrievals from Ozone Monitoring Instrument on board the Earth Observing System (EOS) Aura satellite shows an improvement of ozone precision in upper troposphere and the lower stratosphere (UTLS) of up to 10 % compared with the use of conventional climatologies
Most retrieval algorithms use the sea-level-referenced ozone climatology of McPeters et al (2007), which is based on ozonesonde data and satellite-based measurements from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE-II) and the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on board the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS)
Summary
The tropopause is the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere, two atmospheric layers that have dramatically different thermal stratification, static stability, and chemical composition. Variations in the tropopause height are mostly responsible for large variability in climatological ozone values in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) in pressurelevel-/sea-level-referenced climatologies (e.g., Fortuin and Kelder, 1998; McPeters et al, 2007). Most retrieval algorithms use the sea-level-referenced ozone climatology of McPeters et al (2007) (hereafter referred to as the LLM climatology as in the original paper), which is based on ozonesonde data and satellite-based measurements from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE-II) and the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on board the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). The ozone climatology created in such a way is sensitive to the variability induced by changes in tropopause height It has a better characterization of the vertical distribution of ozone across the UTLS and of the ozone structure in cases of double tropopauses. To create a linked ozone–tropopause climatology (hereafter referred to as the TpO3 climatology), ozone profiles from ozonesondes and the SAGE-II satellite instrument were used
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