An Estimate of the Vertical Ozone Profile Discrepancy between the Australian Brewer–Mast and Electrochemical Concentration Cell Ozonesondes

Abstract

Abstract An analysis is described that provides an additive correction for referencing the vertical ozone profiles of the Australian Brewer–Mast (BM; October 1984–December 1990) ozonesonde to those of the electrochemical concentration cell (ECC; January 1991–December 1999) using approximately coincident Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) II satellite ozone profile data. Because Australian BM ozonesondes may have been prepared differently from BM ozonesondes elsewhere, other results of intercomparisons between the two different ozonesonde types cannot be used. However, the present results are consistent with previously reported intercomparison studies between these two ozonesonde types, where the lowest altitude tropospheric ozone levels measured by the BM ozonesonde were approximately 25% lower than the values measured by the ECC ozonesonde. The magnitudes of the BM corrections were found to be generally less than about 0.5 mPa in partial pressure up to an altitude of approximately 28 km. Without direct intercomparison measurements, the corrections given here provide the only means of removing the discontinuity in the Melbourne ozonesonde dataset that occurred when ECC ozonesondes replaced the BM ozonesondes in 1991.