Yibo Jiang

Validation of Aura Microwave Limb Sounder stratospheric ozone measurements

[1] The Earth Observing System (EOS) Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) aboard the Aura satellite has provided essentially daily global measurements of ozone (O3) profiles from the upper troposphere to the upper mesosphere since August of 2004. This paper focuses on validation of the MLS stratospheric standard ozone product and its uncertainties, as obtained from the 240 GHz radiometer measurements, with a few results concerning mesospheric ozone. We compare average differences and scatter from matched MLS version 2.2 profiles and coincident ozone profiles from other satellite instruments, as well as from aircraft lidar measurements taken during Aura Validation Experiment (AVE) campaigns. Ozone comparisons are also made between MLS and balloon-borne remote and in situ sensors. We provide a detailed characterization of random and systematic uncertainties for MLS ozone. We typically find better agreement in the comparisons using MLS version 2.2 ozone than the version 1.5 data. The agreement and the MLS uncertainty estimates in the stratosphere are often of the order of 5%, with values closer to 10% (and occasionally 20%) at the lowest stratospheric altitudes, where small positive MLS biases can be found. There is very good agreement in the latitudinal distributions obtained from MLS and from coincident profiles from other satellite instruments, as well as from aircraft lidar data along the MLS track.

Validation of Aura Microwave Limb Sounder Ozone by ozonesonde and lidar measurements

We present validation studies of MLS version 2.2 upper tropospheric and stratospheric ozone profiles using ozonesonde and lidar data as well as climatological data. Ozone measurements from over 60 ozonesonde stations worldwide and three lidar stations are compared with coincident MLS data. The MLS ozone stratospheric data between 150 and 3 hPa agree well with ozonesonde measurements, within 8% for the global average. MLS values at 215 hPa are biased high compared to ozonesondes by A`20% at middle to high latitude, although there is a lot of variability in this altitude region. Comparisons between MLS and ground-based lidar measurements from Mauna Loa, Hawaii, from the Table Mountain Facility, California, and from the Observatoire de Haute-Provence, France, give very good agreement, within A`5%, for the stratospheric values. The comparisons between MLS and the Table Mountain Facility tropospheric ozone lidar show that MLS data are biased high by A`30% at 215 hPa, consistent with that indicated by the ozonesonde data. We obtain better global average agreement between MLS and ozonesonde partial column values down to 215 hPa, although the average MLS values at low to middle latitudes are higher than the ozonesonde values by up to a few percent. MLS v2.2 ozone data agree better than the MLS v1.5 data with ozonesonde and lidar measurements. MLS tropical data show the wave one longitudinal pattern in the upper troposphere, with similarities to the average distribution from ozonesondes. High upper tropospheric ozone values are also observed by MLS in the tropical Pacific from June to November.

Concentrations of Tropospheric Ozone from 1979 to 1992 over Tropical Pacific South America from TOMS Data

An estimate of tropospheric ozone concentrations was obtained from the difference in the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) data between the high Andes and the Pacific Ocean. From 1979 to 1992 the tropospheric ozone concentration apparently increased by 1.48 ± 0.40 percent per year or 0.21 ± 0.06 Dobson unit per year over South America and the surrounding oceans. An increase in biomass burning in the Southern Hemisphere can account for this trend in tropospheric ozone concentrations.

High-resolution Fourier-transform ultraviolet–visible spectrometer for the measurement of atmospheric trace species: application to OH

A compact, high-resolution Fourier-transform spectrometer for atmospheric near-ultraviolet spectroscopy has been installed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratorys Table Mountain Facility (34.4 degrees N, 117.7 degrees W, elevation 2290 m). This instrument is designed with an unapodized resolving power near 500,000 at 300 nm to provide high-resolution spectra from 290 to 675 nm for the quantification of column abundances of trace atmospheric species. The measurement technique used is spectral analysis of molecular absorptions of solar radiation. The instrument, accompanying systems designs, and results of the atmospheric hydroxyl column observations are described.

Cloud optical thickness variations during 1983–1991: Solar cycle or ENSO?

Based on a detailed analysis of the cloud data obtained by the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) in the years 1983–1991, we show that besides the reported 3% variation in global cloudiness (Svensmark and Friis-Christensen, 1997), the global mean cloud optical thickness (MCOT) also has significant variation which is out of phase with that of the global cloudiness. The combined effect of the two opposing variations may be a null effect on the cloud reflectivity. These results are consistent with the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) reflectivity measurements. The MCOT variation is further shown to be correlated with both the solar cycle and the ENSO cycle. Our present analysis cannot distinguish which of the above two provides better correlation, although independent data from the High resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS) from 1990 to 1996 favor the solar cycle. Future data are needed to identify the true cause of these changes.

Calculated hydroxyl A2 sigma --> X2 pi (0, 0) band emission rate factors applicable to atmospheric spectroscopy

A calculation of the A2 sigma --> X2 pi (0, 0) band emission rate factors and line center absorption cross sections of OH applicable to its measurement using solar resonant fluorescence in the terrestrial atmosphere is presented in this paper. The most accurate available line parameters have been used. Special consideration has been given to the solar input flux because of its highly structured Fraunhofer spectrum. The calculation for the OH atmospheric emission rate factor in the solar resonant fluorescent case is described in detail with examples and intermediate results. Results of this calculation of OH emission rate factors for individual rotational lines are on average 30% lower than the values obtained in an earlier work.

Decadal evolution of the Antarctic ozone hole

Ozone column amounts obtained by the total ozone mapping spectrometer (TOMS) in the southern polar region are analyzed during late austral winter and spring (days 240-300) for 1980-1991 using area-mapping techniques and area-weighted vortex averages. The vortex here is defined using the -50 PVU (1 PVU = 1.0 x 10(-6) K kg-1 m2 s-1) contour on the 500 K isentropic surface. The principal results are: (1) there is a distinct change after 1985 in the vortex-averaged column ozone depletion rate during September and October, the period of maximum ozone loss, and (2) the vortex-averaged column ozone in late August (day 240) has dropped by 70 Dobson units (DU) in a decade due to the loss in the dark and the dilution effect. The mean ozone depletion rate in the vortex between day 240 and the day of minimum vortex-averaged ozone is about 1 DU d-1 at the beginning of the decade, increasing to about 1.8 DU d-1 by 1985, and then apparently saturating thereafter. The vortex-average column ozone during September and October has declined at the rate of 11.3 DU yr-1 (3.8%) from 1980 to 1987 (90 DU over 8 years) and at a smaller rate of 2 DU yr-1 (0.9%) from 1987 to 1991 (10 DU over 5 years, excluding the anomalous year 1988). We interpret the year-to-year trend in the ozone depletion rate during the earlier part of the decade as due to the rise of anthropogenic chlorine in the atmosphere. The slower trend at the end of the decade indicates saturation of ozone depletion in the vortex interior, in that chlorine amounts in the mid-1980s were already sufficiently high to deplete most of the ozone in air within the isolated regions of the lower-stratospheric polar vortex. In subsequent years, increases in stratospheric chlorine may have enhanced wintertime chemical loss of ozone in the south polar vortex even before major losses during the Antarctic spring.

Detection of tropospheric ozone by remote sensing from the ground

Due to larger multiple scattering effects in the troposphere compared to that in the stratosphere, the optical path of tropospheric ozone is markedly enhanced (as compared with that of stratospheric ozone) in the Huggins bands from 310 to 345 nm. Model study of the direct and diffuse solar fluxes on the ground shows differences between tropospheric and stratospheric ozone. The characteristic signature of tropospheric ozone enables us to distinguish a change in troposheric ozone from that of stratospheric ozone. A simple retrieval algorithm is used to recover the tropospheric column ozone from simulated data.

Modeling of atmospheric radiative transfer with polarization and its application to the remote sensing of tropospheric ozone

Light reflected or transmitted by a planetary atmosphere contains information about particles and molecules in the atmosphere. Therefore, accurate modeling of the radiation field may be used to retrieve information on atmospheric composition. In this paper, a multi-layer model for a vertically inhomogeneous atmosphere is implemented by using the doubling-adding method for a plane-parallel atmosphere. By studying the degree of linear polarization of the transmitted and reflected solar light in the Huggins bands, we find significant differences between tropospheric ozone and stratospheric ozone. The effects of tropospheric ozone change on the linear polarization are 10 times more than that of the same amount of stratospheric ozone change. We also show the aerosol effect on the linear polarization, but this effect is wavelength independent as compared to that caused by the tropospheric ozone change. The results provide a theoretical basis for the retrieval of tropospheric ozone from measurement of linear polarization of the scattered sunlight both from the ground and from a satellite.

Enhanced UV penetration due to ozone cross‐section changes induced by CO2 doubling

Models predict that CO_2 doubling in the atmosphere cools the stratosphere by as much as 10°C. We argue that this effect alone, through the temperature dependence of the ozone spectrum, can result in an increase of a few percent in UV-B (280–320 nm) penetration at the Earths surface. The increase in Erythema-weighted UV radiation is about 1%. Future spectral observations of UV at the surface could distinguish this effect from any result of changes in ozone abundance.