Internal consistency in the Odin stratospheric ozone products

Journal article, 2007

The two independent instruments on the Odin satellite, the Optical Spectrograph and Infrared Imaging System (OSIRIS) and the Sub-Millimetre Radiometer (SMR) produce atmospheric profiles of various atmospheric species including stratospheric ozone. Comparisons are made between OSIRIS version 3.0 and SMR version 2.1 ozone data to evaluate the consistency of the Odin ozone data sets. Results show good agreement between OSIRIS and SMR in the range 25–40 km, where systematic differences are less than 15% for all latitudes and seasons. Larger systematic differences are seen below 25 km, which can be explained by the increase of various error sources and lower signals. The random differences are between 20–30% in the middle stratosphere. Differences between Odin up-scans and down-scans or AM and PM are insignificant in the middle stratosphere. Furthermore, there is little variation from year to year, but a slight positive trend in the differences (OSIRIS minus SMR) of 0.045 ppmv/year at 30 km over validation period (2002–2006). The fact that the two fundamentally different measurement techniques, (absorption spectroscopy of scattering sunlight and emission measurements in the sub-millimetre region) agree so well, provides confidence in the robustness of both techniques.