References

ACPD

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions

ACPD

1680-7375

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acpd-8-17467-2008

Ozone Monitoring Instrument spectral UV irradiance products: comparison with ground based measurements at an urban environment

Kazadzis

¹ ² Bais

² Arola

³ Krotkov

⁴ Kouremeti

² Meleti

Finnish Meteorological Institute, Research and Development, Helsinki, Finland

Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics, Aristotle University Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

Finnish Meteorological Institute, Research and Development, Kuopio, Finland

Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology Center, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA

24 09 2008

8 5 17467 17493

This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/8/17467/2008/acpd-8-17467-2008.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/8/17467/2008/acpd-8-17467-2008.pdf

We have compared spectral ultraviolet overpass irradiances from the Ozone Monitoring Instruments (OMI) against ground-based Brewer measurements at Thessaloniki, Greece from September 2004 to December 2007. It is demonstrated that OMI overestimates UV irradiances by 30%, 17% and 13% for 305 nm, 324 nm, and 380 nm respectively and 20% for erythemally weighted irradiance. The bias between OMI and Brewer increases with increasing aerosol absorption optical thickness. We present methodologies that can be applied for correcting this bias based on experimental results derived from the comparison period and also theoretical approaches using radiative transfer model calculations. All correction approaches minimize the bias and the standard deviation of the ratio OMI versus Brewer ratio. According to the results, the best correction approach suggests that the OMI UV product has to be multiplied by a correction factor C<sub><i>A</i></sub>(λ) are in the order of 0.8, 0.88 and 0.9 for 305 nm, 324 nm and 380 nm respectively. Limitations and possibilities for applying such methodologies in a global scale are also discussed.

References 1

Arola, A., Kazadzis, S., Krotkov, N., Bais, A., Gröbner, J., and Herman, J. R.: Assessment of TOMS UV bias due to absorbing aerosols, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 110 (23), 1–7, 2005.

Amiridis, V., Balis, D. S., Kazadzis, S., Bais, A., Giannakaki, E., Papayannis, A., and Zerefos, C.: Four-year aerosol observations with a Raman lidar at Thessaloniki, Greece, in the framework of European aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET), J. Geophys. Res., 110(D21), D21203, doi:10.1029/2005JD006190, 2005.

Bais, A. F., Kazantzidis, A., Kazadzis, S., Balis, D. S., Zerefos, C. S., and Meleti, C.: Deriving an effective aerosol single scattering albedo from spectral surface UV irradiance measurements, Atmos. Environ., 39(6), 1093–1102, 2005.

Bhartia, P. K., J. Herman, R. D. McPeters, and Torres, O.: Effect of Mount Pinatubo aerosols on total ozone measurements from backscatter ultraviolet (BUV) experiments, J. Geophys. Res., 98 (D10), 18 547–18 554, 1993.

Bhartia, P. K. and Wellemeyer, C. W.: TOMS-V8 total O3 algorithm, in OMI Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document, NASA Goddard Space Flight Cent., Greenbelt, Md., 1–91, 2002.

Chubarova N.: Influence of Aerosol and Atmospheric Gases on Ultraviolet Radiation in Different Optical Conditions Including Smoky Mist of 2002, Doklady Earth Sciences, 394, 1, 2004, 62–67, Translated from Doklady Akademii Nauk, 394, 1, 105–111, 2004.

Eck, T. F., Holben, B. N., Dubovik, O., Smirnov, A., Goloub, P., Chen, H. B., Chatenet, B., Gomes, L., Zhang, X. Y., Tsay, S. C., Ji, Q., Giles, D., and Slutsker, I.: Columnar aerosol optical properties at AERONET sites in central eastern Asia and aerosol transport to the tropical mid-Pacific, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 110 (6), 1–18, 2005.

Fioletov, V. E., Kerr, J. B., Wardle, D. I., Krotkov, N., and Herman, J. R.: Comparison of Brewer ultraviolet irradiance measurements with total ozone mapping spectrometer satellite retrievals, Opt. Eng., 41 (12), 3051–3061, 2002.

Garane, K., Bais, A. F., Kazadzis, S., Kazantzidis, A., and Meleti, C.: Monitoring of UV spectral irradiance at Thessaloniki (1990–2005): Data re-evaluation and quality control, Ann. Geophys., 24 (12), 3215–3228, 2006.

García, O. E., Díaz, A. M., Expósito, F. J., Díaz, J. P., Gröbner, J., and Fioletov, V. E.: Cloudless aerosol forcing efficiency in the UV region from AERONET and WOUDC databases, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L23803, doi:10.1029/2006GL026794, 2006.

Herman, J. R., Krotkov, N., Celarier, E., Larko, D., and Labow, G.: Distribution of UV radiation at the Earth's surface from TOMS-measured UV-backscattered radiances, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 104 (D10), 12 059–12 076, 1999.

Ialongo, I., Casale, G R., and Siani, A M.: Comparison of total ozone and erythemal UV data from OMI with ground-based measurements at Rome station, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 3283–3289, 2008.

Kazadzis, S., Bais, A., Amiridis, V., Balis, D., Meleti, C., Kouremeti, N., Zerefos, C. S., Rapsomanikis, S., Petrakakis, M., Kelesis, A., Tzoumaka, P., and Kelektsoglou, K.: Nine years of UV aerosol optical depth measurements at Thessaloniki, Greece, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 7, 2091–2101, 2007. %

%Kazadzis, S., Bais, A., Balis, D., Kouremeti, N., Zebila, M., Arola, A., Giannakaki, E., Kazantzidis, A., and Amiridis, V.: %Spatial and temporal UV and aerosol variability within the area of an OMI satellite pixel, submitted\blackbox\bf status of paper?, Atmos. Chem. Phys., \blackbox\bf is it the right journal I could not find this title in ACPD or ACP!, %2008.

Kazantzidis, A., Bais, A. F., Gröbner, J., Herman, J. R., Kazadzis, S., Krotkov, N., Kyro, E., den Outer, P. N., Garane, K., Görts, P., Lakkala, K., Meleti, C., Slaper, H., Tax, R. B., Turunen, T., and Zerefos, C. S.: Comparison of satellite-derived UV irradiances with ground-based measurements at four European stations, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 111 (13), D13207, doi:10.1029/2005JD006672, 2006.

Koukouli, M. E., Balis, D. S., Amiridis, V., Kazadzis, S., Bais, A., Nickovic, S., and Torres, O.: Aerosol variability over Thessaloniki using ground based remote sensing observations and the TOMS aerosol index, Atmos. Environ., 40, 5367–5378, 2006.

Krotkov, N. A., Bhartia, P. K., Herman, J. R., Fioletov, V., and Kerr, J.: Satellite estimation of spectral surface UV irradiance in the presence of tropospheric aerosols 1. Cloud-free case, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 103 (D8), 8779–8793, 1998.

Krotkov, N. A., Herman, J. R., Bhartia, P. K., Fioletov, V., and Ahmad, Z.: Satellite estimation of spectral surface UV irradiance 2. Effects of homogeneous clouds and snow, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 106 (D11), 11 743–11 759, 2001.

Krotkov, N., Herman, J., Bhartia, P. K., Seftor, C., Arola, A., Kaurola, J., , Kalliskota, S., Taalas, P., and Geogdzhaev, I. V.: Version 2 total ozone mapping spectrometer ultraviolet algorithm: Problems and enhancements, Opt. Eng., 41 (12), 3028–3039, 2002.

Krotkov, N., Bhartia, P. K., Herman, J., Slusser, J., Scott, G., Labow, G., Vasilkov, A. P., Eck, T. F., Dubovik, O., and Holben, B. N.: Aerosol ultraviolet absorption experiment (2002 to 2004), part 2: Absorption optical thickness, refractive index, and single scattering albedo, Opt. Eng., 44 (4), 1–17, 2005.

Levelt, P. F., Hilsenrath, E., Leppelmeier, G. W., Van Den Oord, G. H. J., Bhartia, P. K., Tamminen, J., De Haan, J. F., and Veefkind, J. P.: Science objectives of the ozone monitoring instrument, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 44 (5), 1199–1207, 2006.

Marenco, F., Santacesaria, V., Bais, A. F., Balis, D., Di Sarra, A., Papayannis, A., and Zerefos, C.: Optical properties of tropospheric aerosols determined by lidar and spectrophotometric measurements (Photochemical Activity and Solar Ultraviolet Radiation Campaign), Appl. Optics, 36 (27), 6875–6886, 1997.

Mayer, B. and Kylling, A.: Technical note: The libRadtran software package for radiative transfer calculations – Description and examples of use, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 5, 1855–1877, 2005.

McKenzie, R. L., Seckmeyer, G., Bais, A. F., Kerr, J. B., and Madronich, S.: Satellite retrievals of erythemal UV dose compared with ground-based measurements at northern and southern midlatitudes, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 106(D20), 24 051–24 062, 2001.

Slaper, H., Reinen, H. A. J. M., Blumthaler, M., Huber, M., and Kuik, F.: Comparing ground-level spectrally resolved solar UV measurements using various instruments: a technique resolving effects of wavelength shift and slit width, Geophys. Res. Lett., 22(20), 2721–2724, 1995.

Tanskanen, A., Krotkov, N. A., Herman, J. R., and Arola, A.: Surface ultraviolet irradiance from OMI, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 44(5), 1267–1271, 2006.

Tanskanen, A., Lindfors, A., Määttä, A., Krotkov, N., Herman, J., Kaurola, J., Koskela, T., Lakkala, K., Fioletov, V., Bernhard, G., McKenzie, R., Kondo, Y., O'Neill, M., Slaper, H., DenOuter, P., Bais, A. F., and Tamminen, J.: Validation of daily erythemal doses from ozone Monitoring Instrument with ground-based UV measurement data, J. Geophys. Res., 5, 112, D24S44, doi:10.1029/2007JD008830, 2008.

Vasaras, A., Bais, A. F., Feister, U., and Zerefos, C. S.: Comparison of two methods for cloud flagging of spectral UV measurements, Atmos. Res., 57 (1), 31–42, 2001.

Weihs, P., Blumthaler, M., Rieder, H E., Kreuter, A., Simic, S., Laube, W., Schmalwieser, A W., Wagner, J., and Tanskanen, A.: Measurements of UV irradiance within the area of one satellite pixel, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 5615–5626, 2008.

Wuttke, S., Verdebout, J., and Seckmeyer, G.: An Improved Algorithm for Satellite-derived UV Radiation, Photochem. Photobiol., 77 (1), 52–57, 2003.

World Meteorological Organization (WMO): Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2006, Global Ozone Research and Monitoring Project, WMO Rep. N, 47, Geneva, 2007.