Articles | Volume 8, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4369-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4369-2015
Research article
 | 
16 Oct 2015
Research article |  | 16 Oct 2015

Relative drifts and biases between six ozone limb satellite measurements from the last decade

N. Rahpoe, M. Weber, A. V. Rozanov, K. Weigel, H. Bovensmann, J. P. Burrows, A. Laeng, G. Stiller, T. von Clarmann, E. Kyrölä, V. F. Sofieva, J. Tamminen, K. Walker, D. Degenstein, A. E. Bourassa, R. Hargreaves, P. Bernath, J. Urban, and D. P. Murtagh

Abstract. As part of European Space Agency's (ESA) climate change initiative, high vertical resolution ozone profiles from three instruments all aboard ESA's Envisat (GOMOS, MIPAS, SCIAMACHY) and ESA's third party missions (OSIRIS, SMR, ACE-FTS) are to be combined in order to create an essential climate variable data record for the last decade. A prerequisite before combining data is the examination of differences and drifts between the data sets. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of ozone profile differences based on pairwise collocated measurements, including the evolution of the differences with time. Such a diagnosis is helpful to identify strengths and weaknesses of each data set that may vary in time and introduce uncertainties in long-term trend estimates. The analysis reveals that the relative drift between the sensors is not statistically significant for most pairs of instruments. The relative drift values can be used to estimate the added uncertainty in physical trends. The added drift uncertainty is estimated at about 3 % decade−1 (1σ). Larger differences and variability in the differences are found in the lowermost stratosphere (below 20 km) and in the mesosphere.

Download
Short summary
The analyses among six satellite instruments measuring ozone reveals that the relative drift between the sensors is not significant in the stratosphere and we conclude that merging of data from these instruments is possible. The merged ozone profiles can then be ingested in global climate models for long-term forecasts of ozone and climate change in the atmosphere. The added drift uncertainty is estimated at about 3% per decade (1 sigma) and should be applied in the calculation of ozone trends.