First steps of a new methodology for integrating ground-based ozone profile data

A new methodology is developed for integrating complementary ground-based data sources to provide consistent ozone vertical distribution time series as well as tropospheric and stratospheric ozone partial columns. Primary results are presented for the Alpine station of the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Changes (NDACC).
Ozone measurements from the lidar at Haute-Provence Observatory, the microwave spectrometer at Bern and the FTIR spectrometer at the Jungfrauch station are used for this purpose. First step is to evaluate the validity domain of ozone profile data considered here by assessing instrumental error and vertical resolution. Each instrument has its own vertical resolution; therefore adjustments need to be done for the creation of an homogeneous data set. Indeed, because of the higher resolution of lidar measurements, smoothing of the data is necessary for the comparison with FTIR and microwave measurements. However, smoothing the data induces a loss of scientific information. Therefore a compromise has to be established and discussed. The various intercomparisons provide an evaluation of the differences due to instrumental error and atmospheric variability. The statistical method used for combining the different measurements in order to obtain ozone vertical profile time series consistent with total ozone measurements is then discussed.