Abstract
Abstract. As part of international efforts to monitor air quality, several satellite missions such as the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) were deployed and others, like Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring Pollution (TEMPO), are planned for the near future. In support of the validation of these missions, major upgrades to the tropospheric ozone lidar located at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Table Mountain Facility (TMF) were recently performed. These modifications include the full automation of the system, which now allows unattended measurements during frequent satellite overpasses, and a new receiver that extends the measurement capabilities of the system down to 100 m above surface. The automation led to the systematic operation of the lidar during daily TROPOMI overpasses, providing more than 139 reference profiles since January 2018. Ozone profiles retrieved using the new lidar receiver were compared to ozonesonde profiles obtained from a co-located tethered balloon. An agreement of about 5 % with the ozonesonde down to an altitude range of 100 m a.g.l. was observed. Furthermore, the stability of the receiver configuration was investigated. Comparisons between the lowest point retrieved by the lidar and a co-located surface ozone photometer showed no sign of drift over a 2-month test period and an agreement better than 10 %. Finally, measurements from a 24 h intensive measurement period during a stratospheric intrusion event showed good agreement with two free-flying ozonesondes. These comparisons revealed localized differences between sonde and lidar, possibly owing to the differing vertical resolutions (between 52 and 380 m for lidar and about 100 m for the sonde).
Highlights
Ozone plays different roles in the troposphere depending on its location
There have been several missions focused on the investigation and monitoring of atmospheric pollutants based on solar-synchronous satellite instruments (Veefkind et al, 2012; Levelt et al, 2018) and others, like the geosynchronous satellite mission Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring Pollution (TEMPO), are expected to be launched soon (Zoogman et al, 2017)
Since optical stability is a key factor in order to obtain reliable unbiased measurements in the very near range, a preliminary long-term comparison between the first valid lidar data point (100 m a.g.l.) and the co-located surface ozone meter deployed at Table Mountain Facility (TMF) was conducted
Summary
Ozone plays different roles in the troposphere depending on its location. At ground level, high ozone concentration affects the air quality, posing a hazard for human health (WHO, 2003), animals and vegetation (Mauzerall and Wang, 2001); while in the upper troposphere, ozone acts as an effective greenhouse gas (Stocker, 2014). There have been several missions focused on the investigation and monitoring of atmospheric pollutants based on solar-synchronous satellite instruments (Veefkind et al, 2012; Levelt et al, 2018) and others, like the geosynchronous satellite mission Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring Pollution (TEMPO), are expected to be launched soon (Zoogman et al, 2017) While these kinds of missions provide large spatial coverage and important information about long-range transport processes, their coarse vertical resolution and daytime-only temporal coverage remain a limiting factor for addressing some key aspects of the pollutant life cycle in the boundary layer and episodic events.
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