Tropospheric ozone variations governed by changes in stratospheric circulation

Discrete wavelength radiance measurements from the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) allows derivation of global synoptic maps of total and tropospheric ozone columns every hour during Northern Hemisphere (NH) Summer or 2 hours during Northern Hemisphere winter. In this study, we present version 3 retrieval of Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera ozone that covers the period from June 2015 to the present with improved geolocation, calibration, and algorithmic updates. The accuracy of total and tropospheric ozone measurements from EPIC have been evaluated using correlative satellite and ground-based total and tropospheric ozone measurements at time scales from daily averages to monthly means. The comparisons show good agreement with increased differences at high latitudes. The agreement improves if we only accept retrievals derived from the EPIC 317 nm triplet and limit solar zenith and satellite looking angles to 70°. With such filtering in place, the comparisons of EPIC total column ozone retrievals with correlative satellite and ground-based data show mean differences within ±5-7 Dobson Units (or 1.5–2.5%). The biases with other satellite instruments tend to be mostly negative in the Southern Hemisphere while there are no clear latitudinal patterns in ground-based comparisons. Evaluation of the EPIC ozone time series at different ground-based stations with the correlative ground-based and satellite instruments and ozonesondes demonstrated good consistency in capturing ozone variations at daily, weekly and monthly scales with a persistently high correlation (r2 > 0.9) for total and tropospheric columns. We examined EPIC tropospheric ozone columns by comparing with ozonesondes at 12 stations and found that differences in tropospheric column ozone are within ±2.5 DU (or ∼±10%) after removing a constant 3 DU offset at all stations between EPIC and sondes. The analysis of the time series of zonally averaged EPIC tropospheric ozone revealed a statistically significant drop of ∼2–4 DU (∼5–10%) over the entire NH in spring and summer of 2020. This drop in tropospheric ozone is partially related to the unprecedented Arctic stratospheric ozone losses in winter-spring 2019/2020 and reductions in ozone precursor pollutants due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Global and zonal tropospheric ozone variations from 2003–2011 as seen by SCIAMACHY

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions ◽

10.5194/acpd-15-24085-2015 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 15 (17) ◽

pp. 24085-24130 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

F. Ebojie ◽

J. P. Burrows ◽

C. Gebhardt ◽

A. Ladstätter-Weißenmayer ◽

C. von Savigny ◽

...

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Linear Regression ◽

South America ◽

Tropospheric Ozone ◽

South American ◽

Multivariate Linear Regression Model ◽

American Continent ◽

The South ◽

South American Continent ◽

Ozone Variations

Abstract. An analysis of the tropospheric ozone (O3) columns (TOCs) derived from SCIAMACHY limb-nadir-matching (LNM) observations during 2003–2011, focusing on the zonal and global variations in TOC is described. The changes are derived using a multivariate linear regression model. TOC shows a change of −0.2 ± 0.4 % yr−1, 0.3 ± 0.4 % yr−1, 0.1 ± 0.5 % yr−1 and 0.1 ± 0.2 % yr−1, which are not statistically significant at the 2 σ level in the latitude bands 30–50° N, 20° S–0, 0–20° N and 50–30° S, respectively. Tropospheric O3 shows statistically significant increases over some regions of South Asia (1–3 % yr−1), the South American continent (up to 2 % yr−1), Alaska (up to 2 % yr−1) and around Congo in Africa (up to 2 % yr−1). Significant increase in TOC is derived from the continental outflows including those of Australia (up to 2 % yr−1), Eurasia (1–3 % yr−1) and the South America (up to 3 % yr−1). Significant decrease in TOC (up to −3 % yr−1) is observed over some regions of the continents of North America, Europe and South America. Over the Oceanic regions, significant decrease in TOC of about −2 % yr−1 is observed over the outflows of Europe and North America.

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