Identification

Title

Validation of AIRS v4 ozone profiles in the UTLS using ozonesondes from Lauder, NZ and Boulder, USA

Abstract

Ozonesonde observations from Lauder (45.0°S, 169.7°E) and Boulder (39.9°N, 105.3°W) are used to examine the quality of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) v4 vertical ozone profile product in the upper troposphere lower stratosphere (UTLS). At lower altitudes (∼700-200 hPa pressure range), AIRS ozone mixing ratios are larger than ozonesonde measurements, and at higher altitudes (∼100-30 hPa pressure range), AIRS ozone mixing ratios are smaller. Compared to the ozonesondes, AIRS retrieval results at Lauder have a median bias of 80% in the region 700-200 hPa, and 0 to -20% in the region 100-30 hPa. For Boulder these values are 40% and 0 to 5%, respectively. Using a tropopause adjusted vertical coordinate system, Lauder has median biases of +90 to +120% in the troposphere and 0 to +25% in the stratosphere whereas Boulder shows median biases of +45 to +70% in the troposphere and 0 to +35% in the stratosphere. Despite the bias, AIRS retrieval in the UTLS region shows a statistically significant positive correlation with the ozonesonde data, indicating that while the absolute values have a large uncertainty, the retrieval captures the variability of ozone in the UTLS region. Hence AIRS ozone is suitable for studies where the change in ozone is important rather than the absolute ozone mixing ratio. Examinations of the training data set show that the retrieval biases are likely influenced by the deficiency of the training data to represent ozone distribution during the regression step of the retrieval. Furthermore the physical retrieval adds little additional information to the final result.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7nz87vt

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2007-09-13T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact