Stratospheric ozone profiles retrieved from limb scattered sunlight radiance spectra measured by the OSIRIS instrument on the Odin satellite

Abstract

Stratospheric ozone density profiles between 15 and 40 km altitude are derived from scattered sunlight limb radiance spectra measured with the Optical Spectrograph and InfraRed Imager System (OSIRIS) on the Odin satellite. The method is based on the analysis of limb radiance profiles in the centre and the wings of the Chappuis-Wulf absorption bands of ozone. It employs a non-linear Newtonian iteration version of Optimal Estimation (OE) coupled with the radiative transfer model LIMBTRAN. The derived zonally averaged ozone field for August 2001 is in excellent agreement with the main characteristics of the global morphology of stratospheric ozone, indicating that the limb scatter technique is capable of providing ozone profiles with high accuracy and high vertical resolution on a global scale and a daily basis.