Retrieval of total atmospheric ozone from GOES

Abstract

The potential for using Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Sounder radiance measurements to monitor total atmospheric ozone is examined. A statistical regression using GOES channel 1 (14.7 micrometer), 2 (14.4 micrometer), 3 (14.1 micrometer), 4 (13.6 micrometer) and 9 (9.7 micrometer) radiances, followed by a physical iterative retrieval using only the channel 9 radiance, allows retrieval of total atmospheric ozone. Simulations show that the algorithm is suitable for retrieving total ozone with reasonable accuracy. In addition, GOES retrieved ozone values are compared with Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) ozone measurements from the Earth Probe (EP) satellite. Both qualitative and quantitative comparisons show that GOES retrievals are able to capture most of the main features of the ozone distribution. Because of the high temporal and spatial density provided by GOES Sounder measurements, the potential uses of GOES ozone retrievals and associated products is exciting.