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Ozone and NO 2 air‐mass factors for zenith‐sky spectrometers: Intercomparison of calculations with different radiative transfer models
Author(s) -
Sarkissian A.,
Roscoe H. K.,
Fish D.,
Van Roozendael M.,
Gil M.,
Chen H. B.,
Wang P.,
Pommereau J.P.,
Lenoble J.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/95gl01032
Subject(s) - zenith , sky , ozone , radiative transfer , solar zenith angle , atmospheric sciences , spectrometer , environmental science , atmospheric radiative transfer codes , atmosphere (unit) , total ozone mapping spectrometer , meteorology , ozone layer , remote sensing , physics , optics , geology
Calculations of air‐mass factors (AMFs) for ground‐based zenith‐sky UV‐visible spectrometers are now well developed in laboratories where stratospheric constituents are measured with this technique. An intercomparison between results from the different radiative transfer models used to calculate AMFs at twilight is presented here. The comparison was made for ozone AMFs at 510 nm and for NO 2 AMFs at 440 nm. Vertical profiles were specified. Results are presented firstly for calculations in a pure Rayleigh atmosphere, then including background aerosols. Relative differences between calculated AMFs from different models cause relative errors in vertical columns of ozone and NO 2 measured by zenith‐sky spectrometers. For commonly used averages over solar zenith angles, these relative errors are ±2.3% in the vertical column of ozone and ±1.1% in the vertical column of NO 2 . Refinements to the calculations, suggested by the intercomparison, should reduce these errors to ±1.0% for ozone and ±0.5% for NO 2 .