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Ground‐based total ozone column measurements and their diurnal variability
Author(s) -
Silva Abel A.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8996
pISSN - 2169-897X
DOI - 10.1002/jgrd.50568
Subject(s) - total ozone mapping spectrometer , environmental science , ozone , satellite , atmospheric sciences , aerosol , diurnal temperature variation , meteorology , ozone layer , geography , geology , aerospace engineering , engineering
Three Brewer spectrophotometers were set up in three tropical sites of South America (in the Bolivian Altiplano and seashore and biomass burning areas of Brazil) to measure the total ozone column (TOC). Only TOC measurements with uncertainties ≤1% (1σ) were considered. Typically, the standard deviation for the diurnal sets of measurements was predominantly ≤1% for two of these sites. The average variability in TOC ranged from 6.3 Dobson units (DU) to 16.8 DU, and the largest variability reached 54.3 DU. Comparisons between ground‐based and satellite (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS)) data showed good agreement with coefficients of determination ≤0.83. However, the quality of the ground‐based measurements was affected by the weather condition, especially for one of the sites. Visual observation of the sky from the ground during the measurements with one of the Brewers added to the satellite data of reflectivity and aerosol index supports that statement.