Abstract
Abstract. We quantify ozone variability in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) by investigating lamination features in balloon measurements of ozone mixing ratio and potential temperature. Laminae are defined as stratified variations in ozone that meet or exceed a 10 % threshold for deviations from a basic state vertical profile of ozone. The basic state profiles are derived for each sounding using smoothing methods applied within a vertical coordinate system relative to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) tropopause. We present results of this analysis for the 25-year record of ozonesonde measurements from Boulder, Colorado. The mean number of ozone laminae identified per sounding is about 9±2 (1σ). The root-mean-square relative amplitude is 20 %, and laminae with much larger amplitudes (>40 %) are seen in ∼ 2 % of the profiles. The vertical scale of detected ozone laminae typically ranges between 0.5 and 1.2 km. The lamina occurrence frequency varies significantly with altitude and is largest within ∼2 km of the tropopause. Overall, ozone laminae identified in our analysis account for more than one-third of the total intra-seasonal variability in ozone. A correlation technique between ozone and potential temperature is used to classify the subset of ozone laminae that are associated with gravity wave (GW) phenomena, which accounts for 28 % of all laminar ozone features. The remaining 72 % of laminae arise from non-gravity wave (NGW) phenomena. There are differences in both the vertical distribution and seasonality of GW versus NGW ozone laminae that are linked to the contrast in main generating mechanisms for each laminae type.
Highlights
The day-to-day variability in the vertical distribution of ozone (O3) above a fixed location is often characterized by the presence of transient, stratified features (e.g., Dütsch, 1966)
Our simulations strongly suggest that this is not an artifact caused by the tropopause, as the false detection rate for simulated ozone laminae was independent of altitude
RIO SOL involves an adaptation of the filter and difference approach used in previous studies of ozonesonde profiles, in which a unique basic state is generated for each ozone profile and laminae are identified as deviations from this basic state
Summary
The day-to-day variability in the vertical distribution of ozone (O3) above a fixed location is often characterized by the presence of transient, stratified features (e.g., Dütsch, 1966). The stratification occurs in the form of layered maxima and minima in the observed vertical profile of ozone, with typical vertical scales between about ∼ 0.2 and ∼ 3 km (e.g., Dobson, 1973; Ehhalt et al, 1983). These features are generally called ozone laminae (e.g., Reid and Vaughan, 1991; Teitelbaum et al, 1994; Orsolini, 1995; Appenzeller and Holton, 1997; Manney et al, 1998, 2000). Minschwaner et al.: Detection and classification of laminae in balloon-borne ozonesonde profiles tongues or filaments appearing in quasi-horizontal coordinates (e.g., Randel et al, 1993; Waugh, 1996; Bowman et al, 2007; Fairlie et al, 2007; Manney et al, 1998)
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