Validation of 10-year SAO OMI Ozone Profile (PROFOZ) product using ozonesonde observations

We validate the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) Ozone Profile (PROFOZ) product from October 2004 through December 2014 retrieved by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) algorithm against ozonesonde observations. We also evaluate the effects of OMI row anomaly (RA) on the retrieval by dividing the dataset into before and after the occurrence of serious OMI RA, i.e., pre-RA (2004-2008) and post-RA (2009-2014). The retrieval shows good agreement with ozonesondes in the tropics and midlatitudes and for pressure < similar to 50 hPa in the high latitudes. It demonstrates clear improvement over the a priori down to the lower troposphere in the tropics and down to an average of similar to 550 (300) hPa at middle (high) latitudes. In the tropics and midlatitudes, the profile mean biases (MBs) are less than 6 %, and the standard deviations (SDs) range from 5 to 10% for pressure similar to 50 hPa after applying OMI averaging kernels to ozonesonde data. The MBs of the stratospheric ozone column (SOC, the ozone column from the tropopause pressure to the ozonesonde burst pressure) are within 2% with SDs of < 5% and the MBs of the tropospheric ozone column (TOC) are within 6% with SDs of 15 %. In the high latitudes, the profile MBs are within 10% with SDs of 5-15% for pressure similar to 50 hPa. The SOC MBs increase up to 3% with SDs as great as 6% and the TOC SDs increase up to 30 %. The comparison generally degrades at larger solar zenith angles (SZA) due to weaker signals and additional sources of error, leading to worse performance at high latitudes and during the midlatitude winter. Agreement also degrades with increasing cloudiness for pressure > similar to 100 hPa and varies with cross-track position, especially with large MBs and SDs at extreme off-nadir positions. In the tropics and midlatitudes, the post-RA comparison is considerably worse with larger SDs reaching 2% in the stratosphere and 8% in the troposphere and up to 6% in TOC. There are systematic differences that vary with latitude compared to the pre-RA comparison. The retrieval comparison demonstrates good long-term stability during the pre-RA period but exhibits a statistically significant trend of 0.14-0.7% year 1 for pressure < similar to 80 hPa, 0.7DUyear(-1) in SOC, and 0 : 33DUyear(-1) in TOC during the post-RA period. The spatiotemporal variation of retrieval performance suggests the need to improve OMI's radiometric calibration especially during the post-RA period to maintain the long-term stability and reduce the latitude/season/SZA and cross-track dependency of retrieval quality.

To Access Resource:

Questions? Email Resource Support Contact:

  • opensky@ucar.edu
    UCAR/NCAR - Library

Resource Type publication
Temporal Range Begin N/A
Temporal Range End N/A
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat N/A
Bounding Box South Lat N/A
Bounding Box West Long N/A
Bounding Box East Long N/A
Spatial Representation N/A
Spatial Resolution N/A
Related Links N/A
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format PDF
Standardized Resource Format PDF
Asset Size N/A
Legal Constraints

Copyright Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Access Constraints None
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name N/A
Resource Support Email opensky@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library
Distributor N/A
Metadata Contact Name N/A
Metadata Contact Email opensky@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library

Author Huang, G.
Liu, X.
Chance, K.
Yang, K.
Bhartia, P. K.
Cai, Z.
Allaart, M.
Ancellet, G.
Calpini, B.
Coetzee, G. J. R.
Cuevas-Agulló, E.
Cupeiro, M.
De Backer, H.
Dubey, M. K.
Fuelberg, H. E.
Fujiwara, M.
Godin-Beekmann, S.
Hall, T. J.
Johnson, B.
Joseph, E.
Kivi, R.
Kois, B.
Komala, N.
König-Langlo, G.
Laneve, G.
Leblanc, T.
Marchand, M.
Minschwaner, K. R.
Morris, G.
Newchurch, M. J.
Ogino, S.
Ohkawara, N.
Piters, A. J. M.
Posny, F.
Querel, R.
Scheele, R.
Schmidlin, F. J.
Schnell, R. C.
Schrems, O.
Selkirk, H.
Shiotani, M.
Skrivánková, P.
Stübi, R.
Taha, G.
Tarasick, D. W.
Thompson, A. M.
Thouret, V.
Tully, M. B.
Van Malderen, R.
Vömel, Holger
von der Gathen, P.
Witte, J. C.
Yela, M.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2017-07-13T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
Alternate Identifier N/A
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
Progress N/A
Metadata Date 2025-07-11T19:47:46.187237
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:20904
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Huang, G., Liu, X., Chance, K., Yang, K., Bhartia, P. K., Cai, Z., Allaart, M., Ancellet, G., Calpini, B., Coetzee, G. J. R., Cuevas-Agulló, E., Cupeiro, M., De Backer, H., Dubey, M. K., Fuelberg, H. E., Fujiwara, M., Godin-Beekmann, S., Hall, T. J., Johnson, B., Joseph, E., Kivi, R., Kois, B., Komala, N., König-Langlo, G., Laneve, G., Leblanc, T., Marchand, M., Minschwaner, K. R., Morris, G., Newchurch, M. J., Ogino, S., Ohkawara, N., Piters, A. J. M., Posny, F., Querel, R., Scheele, R., Schmidlin, F. J., Schnell, R. C., Schrems, O., Selkirk, H., Shiotani, M., Skrivánková, P., Stübi, R., Taha, G., Tarasick, D. W., Thompson, A. M., Thouret, V., Tully, M. B., Van Malderen, R., Vömel, Holger, von der Gathen, P., Witte, J. C., Yela, M.. (2017). Validation of 10-year SAO OMI Ozone Profile (PROFOZ) product using ozonesonde observations. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d73b62k7. Accessed 31 October 2025.

Harvest Source