Pole-to-pole validation of Envisat GOMOS ozone profiles using data from ground-based and balloon sonde measurements

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
• Main Authors: Meijer, Y. J., Swart, D. P. J., Allaart, M., Andersen, S. B., Bodeker, G., Boyd, I., Braathen, G., Calisesi, Y., Claude, H., Dorokhov, V., von der Gathen, P., Gil, M., Godin-Beekmann, Sophie, Goutail, Florence, Hansen, G., Karpetchko, A., Keckhut, Philippe, Kelder, H. M., Koelemeijer, R., Kois, B., Koopman, R. M., Kopp, G., Lambert, J. -C., Leblanc, Thierry, Mcdermid, I. S., Pal, S., Schets, H., Stubi, R., Suortti, T., Visconti, G., Yela, M.
• Other Authors: National Institute for Public Health and the Environment Bilthoven (RIVM), Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Auckland (NIWA), Department of Astronomy Amherst, University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst), University of Massachusetts System (UMASS)-University of Massachusetts System (UMASS), Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), Institute of Applied Physics Bern (IAP), Universität Bern / University of Bern (UNIBE), Deutscher Wetterdienst Offenbach (DWD), Central Aerological Observatory (CAO), Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet), Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA), Service d'aéronomie (SA), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Eindhoven University of Technology Eindhoven (TU/e), Institute of Meteorology and Water Management (IMGW-PIB), Earth Observation Programmes Directorate Frascati, Agence Spatiale Européenne = European Space Agency (ESA), Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung - Atmosphärische Umweltforschung (IMK-IFU), Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy / Institut d'Aéronomie Spatiale de Belgique (BIRA-IASB), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA-California Institute of Technology (CALTECH), Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC), Environment and Climate Change Canada, Institut Royal Météorologique de Belgique Bruxelles - Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (IRM), University of L'Aquila Italy (UNIVAQ)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2004
• Subjects: GOMOS; Envisat; ozone profile; stratosphere; remote sensing; Earth Science; [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Arctic; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04109984; https://hal.science/hal-04109984/document; https://hal.science/hal-04109984/file/Journal%20of%20Geophysical%20Research%20Atmospheres%20-%202004%20-%20Meijer%20-%20Pole%E2%80%90to%E2%80%90pole%20validation%20of%20Envisat%20GOMOS%20ozone%20profiles.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2004JD004834

International audience In March 2002 the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the polar-orbiting environmental satellite Envisat. One of its nine instruments is the Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars (GOMOS) instrument, which is a medium-resolution stellar occultation spectrometer measuring vertical profiles of ozone. In the first year after launch a large group of scientists performed additional measurements and validation activities to assess the quality of Envisat observations. In this paper, we present validation results of GOMOS ozone profiles from comparisons to microwave radiometer, balloon ozonesonde, and lidar measurements worldwide. Thirty-one instruments/launch sites at twenty-five stations ranging from the Arctic to the Antarctic joined in this activity. We identified 6747 collocated observations that were performed within an 800-km radius and a maximum 20-hour time difference of a satellite observation, for the period between 1 July 2002 and 1 April 2003. The GOMOS data analyzed here have been generated with a prototype processor that corresponds to version 4.02 of the operational GOMOS processor. The GOMOS data initially contained many obviously unrealistic values, most of which were successfully removed by imposing data quality criteria. Analyzing the effect of these criteria indicated, among other things, that for some specific stars, only less than 10% of their occultations yield an acceptable profile. The total number of useful collocated observations was reduced to 2502 because of GOMOS data unavailability, the imposed data quality criteria, and lack of altitude overlap. These collocated profiles were compared, and the results were analyzed for possible dependencies on several geophysical (e.g., latitude) and GOMOS observational (e.g., star characteristics) parameters. We find that GOMOS data quality is strongly dependent on the illumination of the limb through which the star is observed. Data measured under bright limb conditions, and to a certain extent also in twilight limb, ...