Global long-term monitoring of the ozone layer – a prerequisite for predictions

Although the Montreal Protocol now controls the production and emission of ozone depleting substances, the timing of ozone recovery is unclear. There are many other factors affecting the ozone layer, in particular climate change is expected to modify the speed of re-creation of the ozone layer. Therefore, long-term observations are needed to monitor the further evolution of the stratospheric ozone layer. Measurements from satellite instruments provide global coverage and are supplementary to selective ground-based observations. The combination of data derived from different space-borne instruments is needed to produce homogeneous and consistent long-term data records. They are required for robust investigations including trend analysis. For the first time global total ozone columns from three European satellite sensors GOME (ERS-2), SCIAMACHY (ENVISAT), and GOME-2 (METOP-A) are combined and added up to a continuous time series starting in June 1995. On the one hand it is important to monitor the consequences of the Montreal Protocol and its amendments; on the other hand multi-year observations provide the basis for the evaluation of numerical models describing atmospheric processes, which are also used for prognostic studies to assess the future development. This paper gives some examples of how to use satellite data products to evaluate model results with respective data derived from observations, and to disclose the abilities and deficiencies of atmospheric models. In particular, multi-year mean values derived from the Chemistry-Climate Model E39C-A are used to check climatological values and the respective standard deviations.

[1]  Robert Sausen,et al.  ATTILA: atmospheric tracer transport in a Lagrangian model , 2002 .

[2]  James F. Gleason,et al.  Comparison of total ozone from the satellite instruments GOME and TOMS with measurements from the Dobson network 1996-2000 , 2002 .

[3]  J. Farman,et al.  Large losses of total ozone in Antarctica reveal seasonal ClOx/NOx interaction , 1985, Nature.

[4]  Dimitris Balis,et al.  Validation of Ozone Monitoring Instrument total ozone column measurements using Brewer and Dobson spectrophotometer ground‐based observations , 2007 .

[5]  Volker Grewe,et al.  Interaction of atmospheric chemistry and climate and its impact on stratospheric ozone , 2002 .

[6]  Diego G. Loyola,et al.  Automatic cloud analysis from polar-orbiting satellites using neural network and data fusion techniques , 2004, IGARSS 2004. 2004 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.

[7]  Richard S. Stolarski,et al.  Search for evidence of trend slow-down in the long-term TOMS/SBUV total ozone data record: the importance of instrument drift uncertainty , 2006 .

[8]  Diego G. Loyola.  CLOUD RETRIEVAL FOR SCIAMACHY , 2000 .

[9]  Heinrich Bovensmann,et al.  SCIAMACHY - Exploring the Changing Earth's Atmosphere , 2011 .

[10]  Heikki Saari,et al.  The ozone monitoring instrument , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[11]  Michael Eisinger,et al.  The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME): Mission Concept and First Scientific Results , 1999 .

[12]  Volker Grewe,et al.  Assessment of temperature, trace species, and ozone in chemistry-climate model simulations of the recent past , 2006 .

[13]  Stacey M. Frith,et al.  Implications of Version 8 TOMS and SBUV Data for Long-Term Trend Analysis , 2004 .

[14]  Pieter Valks,et al.  Ten years of GOME/ERS-2 total ozone data—The new GOME data processor (GDP) version 4: 1. Algorithm description , 2006 .

[15]  A. Hahne,et al.  GOME-2 – Metop ’ s Second-Generation Sensor for Operational Ozone Monitoring , 2000 .

[16]  Volker Grewe,et al.  Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Simulation of stratospheric water vapor trends: impact on , 2005 .

[17]  L. Bengtsson,et al.  Potential role of the quasi-biennial oscillation in the stratosphere-troposphere exchange as found in water vapor in general circulation model experiments , 1999 .

[18]  J. Hovenier,et al.  A fast method for retrieval of cloud parameters using oxygen A band measurements from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment , 2001 .

[19]  S. Chubachi.  A Special Ozone Observation at Syowa Station, Antarctica from February 1982 to January 1983 , 1985 .

[20]  M. Dameris,et al.  Solar cycle effect delays onset of ozone recovery , 2006 .

[21]  F. Goutail,et al.  Validation of Ground-Based Visible Measurements of Total Ozone by Comparison with Dobson and Brewer Spectrophotometers , 1998 .

[22]  Robert J. D. Spurr,et al.  Six years of total ozone column measurements from SCIAMACHY nadir observations , 2008 .

[23]  J. Kerr,et al.  Intercomparison of total ozone measured by the Brewer and Dobson spectrophotometers at Toronto , 1988 .

[24]  Pieter Valks,et al.  Ten years of GOME/ERS2 total ozone data—The new GOME data processor (GDP) version 4: 2. Ground-based validation and comparisons with TOMS V7/V8 , 2007 .

[25]  Elizabeth C. Kent,et al.  Global analyses of sea surface temperature, sea ice, and night marine air temperature since the late nineteenth century , 2003 .

[26]  H. Bovensmann,et al.  Analysis of global water vapour trends from satellite measurements in the visible spectral range , 2007 .

[27]  Volker Grewe,et al.  Impact of climate variability on tropospheric ozone. , 2007, The Science of the total environment.

[28]  E. Dlugokencky,et al.  Development of analytical methods and measurements of 13C/12C in atmospheric CH4 from the NOAA Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory Global Air Sampling Network , 2002 .

[29]  Onu Environnement,et al.  Handbook for the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. , 2009 .

[30]  R. Sausen,et al.  Impact of vertical resolution on the transport of passive tracers in the ECHAM4 model , 2002 .

[31]  Unfccc.  Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , 1997 .

[32]  R. Sausen,et al.  Results of an interactively coupled atmospheric chemistry – general circulation model: Comparison with observations , 2001 .

[33]  Hermann Oelhaf,et al.  Remote sensing of vertical profiles of atmospheric trace constituents with MIPAS limb emission spectrometers , 1998, Asia-Pacific Environmental Remote Sensing.

[34]  M. Buchwitz,et al.  SCIAMACHY: Mission Objectives and Measurement Modes , 1999 .

[35]  C. Brühl,et al.  Long-term changes and variability in a transient simulation with a chemistry-climate model employing realistic forcing , 2005 .

[36]  G. Labow,et al.  An assessment of the world ground-based total ozone network performance from the comparison with satellite data , 1999 .

[37]  M. Claussen,et al.  The atmospheric general circulation model ECHAM-4: Model description and simulation of present-day climate , 1996 .

[38]  Jason Lowe,et al.  Transient Climate Simulations with the HadGEM1 Climate Model: Causes of Past Warming and Future Climate Change , 2006 .

[39]  H. Oelhaf,et al.  Remote sensing of vertical profiles of atmospheric trace constituents with MlPAS limb-emission spectrometers. , 1996, Applied Optics.

[40]  G. Labow,et al.  Bias in Dobson total ozone measurements at high latitudes due to approximations in calculations of ozone absorption coefficients and air mass , 2005 .

[41]  Diego G. Loyola,et al.  Cloud Properties Derived From GOME/ERS-2 Backscatter Data for Trace Gas Retrieval , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[42]  Matthew T. DeLand,et al.  A cohesive total ozone data set from the SBUV(/2) satellite system , 2002 .

[43]  V. L. Orkin,et al.  Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2010 , 2003 .

[44]  C. Brühl,et al.  Multimodel projections of stratospheric ozone in the 21st century , 2007 .

[45]  John P. Burrows,et al.  Pole-to-pole validation of GOME WFDOAS total ozone with groundbased data , 2004 .

[46]  A. Kokhanovsky,et al.  Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document Semi-Analytical CloUd Retrieval Algorithm for SCIAMACHY / ENVISAT , 2006 .

[47]  D. Shindell,et al.  The Impact of Horizontal Transport on the Chemical Composition in the Tropopause Region: Lightning NOx and Streamers , 2004 .

[48]  M. V. Roozendael,et al.  FRESCO+: an improved O 2 A-band cloud retrieval algorithm for tropospheric trace gas retrievals , 2008 .

[49]  Costas A. Varotsos,et al.  Geophysical validation of MIPAS-ENVISAT operational ozone data , 2007 .

[50]  D. H. D. West.  Updating mean and variance estimates: an improved method , 1979, CACM.

[51]  Veronika Eyring,et al.  Impact of large solar zenith angles on lower stratospheric dynamical and chemical processes in a coupled chemistry-climate model , 2003 .

[52]  Michel Crucifix,et al.  The new hadley centre climate model (HadGEM1) : Evaluation of coupled simulations , 2006 .

[53]  James F. Gleason,et al.  Combined characterisation of GOME and TOMS total ozone measurements from space using ground-based observations from the NDSC , 2000 .

[54]  J. Lambert,et al.  Investigation of Pole-to-Pole Performances of Spaceborne Atmospheric Chemistry Sensors with the NDSC , 1999 .

[55]  M. Santee,et al.  On the unexplained stratospheric ozone losses during cold Arctic Januaries , 2003 .

[56]  P. Crutzen,et al.  Development of a chemistry module for GCMs: first results of a multiannual integration , 1998 .

[57]  Philip J. Rasch,et al.  Water vapor transport in the NCAR CCM2 , 1994 .

[58]  Gary J. Rottman,et al.  Detection and parameterization of variations in solar mid- and near-ultraviolet radiation (200-400 nm) , 1997 .