Abstract. Abstract. Ozone is a species of primary interest as it performs a key role in the middle atmosphere and its monitoring is thus necessary. At the Institute of Applied Physics of the University of Bern, Switzerland, we built a new ground based microwave radiometer, GROMOS-C (GRound based Ozone MOnitoring System for Campaigns). It has a compact design and can be operated at remote places with very little maintenance requirements, being therefore suitable for remote deployments. It has been conceived to measure the vertical distribution of ozone in the middle atmosphere, by observing pressure broadened emission spectra at a frequency of 110.836 GHz. In addition, meridional and zonal wind profiles can be retrieved, based on the Doppler shift of the ozone line measured in the 4 directions of observation (North-East-South-West). In June 2014 the radiometer was installed in the Maïdo observatory, on La Réunion Island (21.2° S, 55.5° E). High resolution ozone spectra were continuously recorded during 7 months. Vertical profiles of ozone have been retrieved through an optimal estimation inversion process, using the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Simulator ARTS2 as the forward model. The best estimate of the vertical profile is done by means of the optimal estimation method. The validation is performed against ozone profiles from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on the Aura satellite, the ozone lidar located in the observatory and with ozone profiles from weekly radiosondes. Zonal and meridional winds retrieved from GROMOS-C data are validated against another wind radiometer located in situ, WIRA. In addition, we compare both ozone and winds with ECMWF model data. Results show that GROMOS-C provides reliable ozone profiles between 30 to 0.02 hPa. The comparison with lidar shows a very good agreement at all levels. The accordance with MLS is within less than 10 % for pressure levels between 25 and 0.2 hPa.
Potential areas of interest for the development of geothermal energy in La Réunion Island based on GIS analysis
