Arctic Winter Ozone Maps And Vertical Profiles From GOME Satellite

GOME satellite data provided near real-time total ozone maps and vertical profiles during the 1997 Arctic winter campaign from January 24 to March 31. The Bremen Institute of Environmental Physics and Remote Sensing (IUP/ife) generated these products in collaboration with DLR and ESA. Maps were updated every six hours, using data from ten daily satellite orbits received at the Kiruna ground station.

Use Cases

• Analyze polar vortex dynamics by correlating vertical ozone profile distribution with meteorological data for winter/spring 1997.
• Validate aircraft and balloon experiment measurements (e.g., POLSTAR) using the near real-time total ozone column maps from specific campaign dates.
• Study global ozone distribution evolution by examining the four three-day periods of total ozone values plotted for each month starting July 1996.
• Assess data gaps in satellite coverage by identifying white space areas on the gridded lat-long ozone maps.
• Compare operational DOAS method-derived vertical column amounts with other retrieval algorithms using the calibrated sun and earthshine spectra (Level-1 data).

Strengths

• Provides near real-time data with six-hour updates for total ozone maps during the active campaign period.
• Includes both total column ozone and height-resolved vertical profile data for a focused atmospheric event.
• Covers a specific 67-day period of intensive Arctic winter observation from January 24 to March 31, 1997.

Limitations

• Near-real-time height-resolved ozone maps are only available for the limited Arctic campaign period ending March 31, 1997.
• Global coverage requires three days due to the instrument's 960-km swath, limiting daily spatial completeness.
• Data contains gaps, represented as white space on maps, due to irregular measurement points and satellite reception constraints.

Provenance

Source

Bremen Institute of Environmental Physics and Remote Sensing (IUP/ife), in collaboration with DLR German Remote Sensing Data Center and ESA.

Collection Method

Derived from GOME (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment) instrument on ERS-2 satellite. Total ozone from Level-2 data processed by DLR/DFD GDP; vertical profiles from Level-1 spectra processed at University of Bremen.

Time Range

Primary campaign: January 24, 1997 - March 31, 1997. Global distribution plots available from July 1996 onward.

Freshness

Historical dataset from 1997; total ozone maps from the same day were provided on a continuing basis, but update status for the source platform is unknown.

Geography

Global, with focused campaign activities in and around Kiruna, Sweden, and emphasis on the Northern Hemisphere and polar vortex.