Comparisons of Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE II) and Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Instrument (SBUV/2) ozone profiles and trend estimates

Abstract

The ozone data sets from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE II), using its version 6.2 processing code, and the second generation Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Instrument (SBUV/2) on the NOAA‐11 and NOAA‐16 satellites, using its version 8 processing code, are compared. We study the ozone profiles from these two experiments at near coincident points in time and space. The weighted mean percent differences between ozone profiles from the SAGE II data set and the SBUV/2 data record from the NOAA‐11 and NOAA‐16 satellites are less than 5% and 10%, respectively, at pressure levels from 50 mb to 0.7 mb, with some exceptions. The weighted RMS percent differences between the ozone estimates from the SAGE II experiment and the NOAA‐11 and NOAA‐16 SBUV/2 data records are between 5% and 14%, at pressure levels from 40 mb to 0.7 mb, with few exceptions. We examine the time dependence of the bias between the SAGE II and SBUV/2 measurements and show that the slopes of the time series of differences between the SAGE II ozone data record and the NOAA‐11 and NOAA‐16 SBUV/2 data sets are less than 0.5% per year and 3% per year, respectively, with few exceptions. We also analyze the differences in long‐term changes of ozone, i.e., trends determined from each data set. The bias between ozone trends of SAGE II and SBUV/2 (on NOAA‐11 satellite) is less than 0.5% per year in the majority of latitude bands at the pressure levels 50 mb to 0.5 mb, with some exceptions.