www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/9093/2007/ doi:10.5194/acpd-7-9093-2007 © Author(s) 2007. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Recipe for continuous monitoring of total ozone with a precision of around 1 DU applying mid-infrared solar absorption spectra IMK-ASF, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany Abstract. Mid-infrared solar absorption spectra recorded by a state-of-the-art ground-based FTIR system have the potential to provide precise total O3 amounts. The currently best-performing retrieval approaches use a combination of small and broad spectral O3 windows between 780 and 1015 cm−1. We show that for these approaches uncertainties in the temperature profile are by far the major error sources. We demonstrate that a joint optimal estimation of temperature and O3 profiles widely eliminates this error. The improvements are documented by an extensive theoretical error estimation. Our results suggest that mid-infrared FTIR measurements can provide total O3 amounts with a precision of around 1 DU, placing this method among the most precise ground-based O3 monitoring techniques. We recapitulate the requirements on instrumental hardware and retrieval necessary to achieve this high precision. Discussion Paper (PDF, 925 KB) Interactive Discussion (Closed, 3 Comments) Final Revised Paper (ACP) Citation: Schneider, M. and Hase, F.: Recipe for continuous monitoring of total ozone with a precision of around 1 DU applying mid-infrared solar absorption spectra, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 7, 9093-9113, doi:10.5194/acpd-7-9093-2007, 2007. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager XML |