Ozone profile retrieval from nadir TROPOMI measurements in the UV range

Abstract

The TOPAS (Tikhonov regularised Ozone Profile retrievAl with SCIATRAN) algorithm to retrieve vertical profiles of ozone from space-borne observations in nadir-viewing geometry has been developed at the Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP) of the University of Bremen and applied to the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) L1B spectral data version 2. Spectral data between 270 and 329 nm are used for the retrieval. A recalibration of the measured radiances is done using ozone profiles from MLS/Aura. Studies with synthetic spectra show that individual profiles in the stratosphere can be retrieved with an uncertainty of about 10%. In the troposphere, the retrieval errors are larger depending on the a priori profile used. The vertical resolution above 18km is about 6-10km, and it degrades to 15-25km below. The vertical resolution in the troposphere is strongly dependent on the solar zenith angle (SZA). The ozone profiles retrieved from TROPOMI with the TOPAS algorithm were validated using data from ozonesondes and stratospheric ozone lidars. Above 18km, the comparison with sondes shows excellent agreement within less than ±5% for all latitudes. The standard deviation of mean differences is about 10%. Below 18km, the relative mean deviation in the tropics and northern latitudes is still quite good, remaining within ±20%. At southern latitudes, larger differences of up to +40% occur between 10 and 15km. The standard deviation is about 50% between 7-18km and about 25% below 7km. The validation of stratospheric ozone profiles with ground-based lidar measurements also shows very good agreement. The relative mean deviation is below ±5% between 18-45km, with a standard deviation of 10%. TOPAS retrieval results for 1d of TROPOMI observations were compared to ozone profiles from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on the Aura satellite and the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite Limb Profiler (OMPS-LP). The relative mean difference was found to be largely below ±5% between 20-50km, except at very high latitudes.