Evaluation of Total Ozone Column from Multiple Satellite Measurements in the Antarctic Using the Brewer Spectrophotometer

The ground-based ozone observation instrument, Brewer spectrophotometer (Brewer), was used to evaluate the quality of the total ozone column (TOC) produced by multiple polar-orbit satellite measurements at three stations in Antarctica (King Sejong, Jang Bogo, and Zhongshan stations). While all satellite TOCs showed high correlations with Brewer TOCs (R = similar to 0.8 to 0.9), there are some TOC differences among satellite data in austral spring, which is mainly attributed to the bias of Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) TOC. The quality of satellite TOCs is consistent between Level 2 and 3 data, implying that which satellite TOC is used can induce larger uncertainty than which spatial resolution is used for the investigation of the Antarctic TOC pattern. Additionally, the quality of satellite TOC is regionally different (e.g., OMI TOC is a little higher at the King Sejong station, but lower at the Zhongshan station than the Brewer TOC). Thus, it seems necessary to consider the difference of multiple satellite data for better assessing the spatiotemporal pattern of Antarctic TOC.

Automated summary

The study found that there are differences in total ozone column (TOC) measurements among satellite data in the austral spring in Antarctica, mainly attributed to the bias of Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) TOC. Although all satellite TOCs show high correlations with Brewer TOCs, the quality of satellite TOCs varies regionally, highlighting the need to consider differences in multiple satellite data for better assessment of the spatiotemporal pattern of Antarctic TOC.