Merging the OSIRIS and SAGE II stratospheric aerosol records

Abstract

The Optical Spectrograph and InfraRed Imaging System (OSIRIS) instrument on the Odin satellite, launched in 2001 and currently operational, measures limb-scattered sunlight from which profiles of stratospheric aerosol extinction are retrieved. The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) II was launched in 1984 and provided measurements of stratospheric aerosol extinction until mid-2005. This provides approximately 4 years of mission overlap which has allowed us to consistently extend the SAGE II version 7.00 record to the present using OSIRIS aerosol extinction retrievals. In this work we first compare coincident aerosol extinction observations during the overlap period by interpolating the SAGE II 525nm and 1020nm channels to the OSIRIS extinction wavelength of 750nm. In the tropics to midlatitudes mean differences are typically less than 10%, although larger biases are seen at higher latitudes and at altitudes outside the main aerosol layer. OSIRIS aerosol extinction retrievals at 750nm are used to create a monthly time series zonally averaged in 5°bins and qualitatively compared to SAGE II 525nm observations averaged in the same way. The OSIRIS time series is then translated to 525nm with an Ângström exponent relation and bias corrected. For most locations, this provides agreement during the overlap time period to better than 15%. Uncertainty in the resulting OSIRIS time series is estimated through a series of simulation studies over the range of aerosol particle size distributions observed by in situ balloon instruments and is found to be approximately 20% for background and moderately volcanic aerosol loading conditions for the majority of OSIRIS measurement conditions.