Ozone Soundings


Science Background and Motivation

Stratospheric ozone (O3) acts as a shield against radiation and protects humans against harmful ultraviolet light. In the troposphere, where it is a pollutant, human activities such as biomass burning affect ozone levels as do natural processes that bring ozone from the stratosphere into the troposphere. Regional biomass burning contributes to elevated ozone in the tropical troposphere and to the well-established zonal "wave-1" pattern. Ticosonde conducts three or more ozone soundings per month and is part of the SHADOZ network that provides additional ozone profiles in the tropics and southern hemisphere for validation of satellite measurements of ozone.

Results

Climatology

The climatology of ozone over the larger San Jose area shown here is based on over 500 soundings launched over a period of more than 12 years.


Tropospheric ozone shows a maximum in August and September during the peak of the local rainy season with average concentrations in the mid troposphere around 60 ppbv. The climatological tropopause altitude is shown as solid line. The climatological ozone concentration at the tropopause is 92 ppbv. The lowest tropopause ozone concentrations are found during the dry season between February and March with an average of 82 ppbv.

MLS comparison

These figures show the average ECC and MLS ozone profiles as a function of pressure during the four climatological seasons: Dec/Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr/May, Jun/Jul/Aug, and Sep/Oct/Nov. The variability for both systems is comparable except for the lower parts of these profiles, where the MLS observations lose sensitivity and the upper parts of these profiles, where the ECC sondes show more variability due to instrumental and natural variability, which is not seen by MLS. The average comparison shows good agreement between both systems and contributes to the validation of the MLS ozone measurements.

Papers and Presentations

Davis S. M., K. H. Rosenlof, B. Hassler, D. Hurst, W. G. Read, H. Vömel, H. Selkirk, M. Fujiwara, and R. Damadeo (2016): The Stratospheric Water and Ozone Satellite Homogenized (SWOOSH) database: A long-term database for climate studies, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 8, 461-490, doi:10.5194/essd-8-461-2016.

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.-Y., 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, H., von der Gathen, P., Witte, J. C., and Yela, M.: Validation of 10-year SAO OMI Ozone Profile (PROFOZ) product using ozonesonde observations, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 2455-2475, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2455-2017, 2017.

Jiang, Y. B. , L. Froidevaux, A. Lambert, N. J. Livesey, W. G. Read, J. W. Waters, B. Bojkov, T. Leblanc, I. S. McDermid, S. Godin-Beekmann, M. J. Filipiak, R. S. Harwood, R. A. Fuller, W. H. Daffer, B. J. Drouin, R. E. Cofield, D. T. Cuddy, R. F. Jarnot, B. W. Knosp, V. S. Perun, M. J. Schwartz, W. V. Snyder, P. C. Stek, R. P. Thurstans, P. A. Wagner, M. Allaart, S. B. Andersen, G. Bodeker, B. Calpini, H. Claude, G. Coetzee, J. Davies, H. De Backer, H. Dier, M. Fujiwara, B. Johnson, H. Kelder, N. P. Leme, G. König-Langlo, E. Kyrö, G. Laneve, L. S. Fook, J. Merrill, G. Morris, M. Newchurch, S. Oltmans, M. C. Parrondos, F. Posny, F. Schmidlin, P. Skrivankova, R. Stubi, D. Tarasick, A. Thompson, V. Thouret, P. Viatte, H. Vömel, P. von Der Gathen, M. Yela, G. Zablocki (2007): Validation of Aura Microwave Limb Sounder Ozone by Ozonesonde and Lidar Measurements, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D24S34, doi:10.1029/2007JD008776.

Nassar, R., J. A. Logan, H. M. Worden, I. A. Megretskaia, K. W. Bowman, G. B. Osterman, A. M. Thompson, D. W. Tarasick, S. Austin, H. Claude, M. K. Dubey, W. K. Hocking, B. J. Johnson, E. Joseph, J. Merrill, G. A. Morris, M. Newchurch, S. J. Oltmans, F. Posny, F. J. Schmidlin,H. Vömel, D. N. Whiteman, and J. C. Witte (2008): Validation of Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) nadir ozone profiles using ozonesonde measurements, J. Geophys. Res., 113, D15S17, doi:10.1029/2007JD008819.

Schoeberl, M., H. Selkirk, A. Douglass, and H Vömel (2015): Sources of Seasonal Variability in Tropical UTLS Water Vapor and Ozone: Inferences from the Ticosonde Dataset at Costa Rica, J. Geophys. Res., 120, 9684-9701, doi:10.1002/2015JD023299

Schoeberl, M. R., J. R. Ziemke, B. Bojkov, N. Livesey, B. Duncan, S. Strahan, L. Froidevaux, S. Kulawik, P. K. Bhartia, S. Chandra, P. F. Levelt, J. C. Witte, A. M. Thompson, E. Cuevas, A. Redondas, D. W. Tarasick, J. Davies, G. Bodeker, G. Hansen, B. J. Johnson, S. J. Oltmans, H. Vömel, M. Allaart, H. Kelder, M. Newchurch, S. Godin- Beekmann, G. Ancellet, H. Claude, S. B. Andersen, E. Kyrö, M. Parrondos, M. Yela, G. Zablocki, D. Moore, H. Dier, P. von der Gathen, P. Viatte, R. Stübi, B. Calpini, P. Skrivankova, V. Dorokhov, H. de Backer, F. J. Schmidlin, G. Coetzee, M. Fujiwara, V. Thouret, F. Posny, G. Morris, J. Merrill, C. P. Leong, G. Koenig-Langlo, E. Joseph, A trajectory-based estimate of the tropospheric ozone column using the residual method, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D24S49, doi:10.1029/2007JD008773, 2007.

Thompson, A. M., S. K. Miller, S. Tilmes, D. W. Kollonige, J. C. Witte, S. J. Oltmans, B. J. Johnson , M. Fujiwara , F. J. Schmidlin , G. J. R. Coetzee , N. Komala , M. Maata , M. bt Mohamad , J. Nguyo, C. Mutai, S-Y. Ogino , F. Raimundo Da Silva, N. M. Paes Leme , F. Posny , R. Scheele , H. B. Selkirk, M. Shiotani , R. Stübi, G. Levrat, B. Calpini , V. Thouret, H. Tsuruta , J. Valverde Canossa , H. Vömel , S. Yonemura , J. A. Diaz , Nguyen T. Tan Thanh, and Hoang T. Thuy Ha, (2012), Southern Hemisphere Additional Ozonesondes (SHADOZ) ozone climatology (2005-2009): Tropospheric and tropical tropopause layer (TTL) profiles with comparisons to OMI-based ozone products, J. Geophys. Res., 117, D23301, doi:10.1029/2011JD016911.

Thompson, A. M., A. M. Luzik, G. A. Morris, J. E. Yorks, S. K. Miller, B. F. Taubman, G. Verver, H. Vömel, M. A. Avery, J. W. Hair, G. S. Diskin, E. V. Browell, J. Valverde-Canossa, T. L. Kucsera, C. A. Klich, D. L. Hlavka, (2010): Convective and wave signatures in ozone profiles over the equatorial Americas: Views from TC4 (2007) and SHADOZ, J. Geophys. Res., 115, D00J23, doi:10.1029/2009JD012909.

Thompson, A. M., J. Witte, C. Sterling, A. Jordan, B. J. Johnson, S. Oltman, M. Fujiwara, H. Vömel, M. Allaart, A. Piters, G. Coetzee, F. Posny, J. A. Diaz, C. Félix, N. Komala, M. Maata, Z. Zainal, F. Paredes, T. Penha, F. DaSilva, S. S. Mitro, H. Selkirk, F. Schmidlin, R. Stuebi, K. Thiongo, F. Mani 2017):First Reprocessing of Southern Hemisphere Additional Ozonesondes (SHADOZ) Ozone Profiles (1998-2016). 2. Comparisons with Satellites and Ground-based Instruments, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., in press.

Witte, J. C., A. M. Thompson, H. G. J. Smit, H. Vömel, F. Posny, and R. Stübi (2017): First Reprocessing of Southern Hemisphere ADditional OZonesondes (SHADOZ) Profile Records: 3. Uncertainty in Ozone Profile and Total Column, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., in press.