Upper stratospheric (30–50 km) lidar observations of the ozone vertical distribution

Abstract

A maximum reduction of 20% of the ozone content in the altitude range 35–45 km is presently expected within the next 50 years. Early detection of trends is thus of particular importance to confirm such extrapolations. An active lidar system, which uses a powerful exciplex laser as the emitting source at 308 nm, has been operated at the Observatoire de Haute Provence to probe the upper stratospheric ozone distribution. A description of the lidar system and results of the measurements are given and compared with those obtained simultaneously by already proven techniques, such as Brewer‐Mast sondes and Umkehr spectroscopic measurements. A general agreement within the uncertainties of the various methods is found. The data are further analyzed to determine a total error budget and to extrapolate the potentiality of lidar systems, using up‐to‐date laser sources to reach a precison better than 3% in the considered altitude range.