Influence of the Annual Cycle in Meridional Transport on the Quasi-biennial Oscillation in Total Ozone

Sixteen years (July 2003–July 2019) of ground-based measurements of total ozone in the urban environment of Athens, Greece, are analyzed in this work. Measurements were acquired with a single Brewer monochromator operating on the roof of the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens since July 2003. We estimate a 16-year climatological mean of total ozone in Athens of about 322 DU, with no significant change since 2003. Ozone data from the Brewer spectrophotometer were compared with TOMS, OMI, and GOME-2A satellite retrievals. The results reveal excellent correlations between the ground-based and satellite ozone measurements greater than 0.9. The variability of total ozone over Athens related to the seasonal cycle, the quasi biennial oscillation (QBO), the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the 11-year solar cycle, and tropopause pressure variability is presented.

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The features of quasi biennial oscillation influence on total ozone amount distribution

ScienceRise ◽

10.15587/2313-8416.2015.46145 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 7 (1(12)) ◽

pp. 28

Author(s):

Александр Вадимович Холопцев ◽

Мария Павловна Никифорова

Keyword(s):

Total Ozone ◽

Quasi Biennial Oscillation ◽

Ozone Amount ◽

Biennial Oscillation

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Interpreting SBUV smoothing errors: an example using the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation

Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions ◽

10.5194/amtd-6-2721-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 2721-2749 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

N. A. Kramarova ◽

P. K. Bhartia ◽

S. M. Frith ◽

R. D. McPeters ◽

R. S. Stolarski

Keyword(s):

Total Ozone ◽

Lower Stratosphere ◽

Thick Layer ◽

Optimal Estimation ◽

Covariance Matrices ◽

Visual Interpretation ◽

Quasi Biennial Oscillation ◽

Retrieval Method ◽

Ozone Profile ◽

Biennial Oscillation

Abstract. The Solar Backscattered Ultraviolet (SBUV) observing system consists of a series of instruments that have been measuring both total ozone and the ozone profile since 1970. SBUV measures the profile in the upper stratosphere with a resolution that is adequate to resolve most of the important features of that region. In the lower stratosphere the limited vertical resolution of the SBUV system means that there are components of the profile variability that SBUV cannot measure. The smoothing error, as defined in the Optimal Estimation retrieval method, describes the components of the profile variability that the SBUV observing system cannot measure. In this paper we provide a simple visual interpretation of the SBUV smoothing error by comparing SBUV ozone anomalies in the lower tropical stratosphere associated with the Quasi Biennial Oscillation (QBO) to anomalies obtained from the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS). We describe a methodology for estimating the SBUV smoothing error for monthly zonal mean (mzm) profiles. We construct covariance matrices that describe the statistics of the inter-annual ozone variability using a 6-yr record of Aura MLS and ozonesonde data. We find that the smoothing error is of the order of 1% between 10 hPa and 1 hPa, increasing up to 15–20% in the troposphere and up to 5% in the mesosphere. The smoothing error for total ozone columns is small, mostly less than 0.5%. We demonstrate that by merging the partial ozone columns from several layers in the lower stratosphere/troposphere into one thick layer, we can minimize the smoothing error. We recommend using the following layer combinations to reduce the smoothing error to about 1%: surface to 25 hPa (16 hPa) outside (inside) of the narrow equatorial zone 20° S–20° N.

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