Abstract
An examination of typical tropospheric ozone variability on daily, monthly, annual and interannual timescales and instrumental precision indicates that the current ozonesonde network is insufficient to detect a trend in tropospheric ozone of ≤1% per year at the 2σ level even at stations with records a decade in length. From a trend prediction analysis we conclude that in order to detect a 1% per year trend in a decade or less it will be necessary to decrease the time between observations from its present value of 3–7 days to 1 day or less. The spatial distribution of the current ozonesonde stations is also inadequate for determining the global climatology of ozone. We present a quantitative theory taking into account photochemistry, surface deposition, and wind climatology to define the ‘effectively sampled region’ for an observing station which, used in conjunction with the instrumental precision and the above prediction analysis, forms the basis for defining a suitable global network for determining regional and global ozone climatology and trends. At least a doubling of the present number of stations is necessary, and the oceans, most of Asia, Africa, and South America are areas where more stations are most needed. Differential absorption lidar ozone instruments have the potential for far more frequent measurements of ozone vertical profiles and hence potentially more accurate climatology and trend determinations than feasible with ozonesondes but may produce a (fair weather) biased data set above the cloud base. A strategy for cloudy regions in which either each station utilizes both lidars and sondes or each station is in fact a ‘doublet’ comprised of a near-sea-level lidar and a proximal-mountain-top lidar could serve to minimize this bias.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Angell, J. and Korshover, J., 1983, Global variation in total ozone and layer-mean ozone: an update through 1981, J. Climate Appl. Met. 22, 1611–1626.
Barnes, R., Bandy, A., and Torres, A., 1985, ECC Ozonesonde accuracy and precision, J. Geophys. Res. 90, 7881–7887.
Beryland, T. and Strokina, L., 1974, Cloudiness regime over the globe, Physical Climatology (MGO, Trudy) 338, 3–20.
Brewer, A. and Milford, J., 1960, The Oxford-Kew ozone sonde, Proc. Roy. Soc. A 256, 470–495.
Crutzen, P., Delaney, A., Greenberg, J., Haagenson, P., Heidt, L., Lueb, R., Pollock, W., Seiler, W., Wartburg, A., and Zimmerman, P., 1985, Tropospheric chemical composition measurements in Brazil during the day in the dry season, J. Atmos. Chem. 2, 233–256.
Cunnold, D., Alyea, F., and Prinn, R., 1978, A methodology for determining the atmospheric lifetime of fluorocarbons, J. Geophys. Res. 83, 5493–5500.
Dutsch, H., 1974, Regular ozone soundings at the aerological station of the Swiss Meteorological Office at Payerne, Switzerland 1968–1972, Laboratorium fur Atmospharenphysik ETH, Zurich, Lapeth 10.
Dutsch, H., 1979, Regular ozone soundings at the aerological station of the Swiss Meteorological Office at Payerne, Switzerland 1972–1976, Laboratorium fur Atmospharenphysik ETH, Zurich, Lapeth 16.
Fay, J. and Rosenzweig, J., 1980, An analytical diffusion model for long distance transport of air pollutants, Atmos. Environ. 14, 355–365.
Feister, U., Grasnick, K., and Peters, G., 1985, Performance of the electrochemical ozone sonde OSR, Pageoph 123, 422–440.
Galbally, I. and Roy, C., 1980, Destruction of ozone at the earth's surface, Quart. J. Roy. Met. Soc. 16, 599–620.
Gregory, G., Harris, R., Talbot, R., Rasmussen, R., Garstang, M., Andreae, M., Hinton, R., Browell, E., Beck, S., Sebacher, D., Khalil, M., Ferek, R., and Harris, S., 1986, Air chemistry over the tropical forest of Guyana, J. Geophys. Res. 91, 8603–8612.
Junge, C., 1962, Global ozone budget and exchange between stratosphere and troposphere, Tellus 14, 363–377.
Junge, C., 1974, Residence time and variability of tropospheric trace gases, Tellus 16, 477–488.
Kley, D., 1986, Instrumentation and measuring techniques for tropospheric ozone, paper presented at the European Science Foundation Workshop on Tropospheric Ozone Chemistry, Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia.
Kohmyr, W., 1969, Electrochemical concentration cells for gas analysis, Ann. Geophys. 25, 203–210.
Levy, H., Mahlman, J., and Moxim, W., 1985, Tropospheric ozone: the role of transport, J. Geophys. Res. 90, 3753–3772.
Liu, S., Trainer, M., Fehsenfeld, F., Parrish, D., Williams, E., Fahey, D., Hubler, G., and Murphy, P., 1987, Ozone production in the rural troposphere and implications for regional and global ozone distributions. J. Geophys. Res. 92, 4191–4207.
Logan, J., 1985, Tropospheric ozone: seasonal behaviour, trends and anthropogenic influences, J. Geophys. Res. 90, 10463–10482.
Moxim, W., and Mahlman, J., 1980, Evaluation of various total ozone sampling networks using the GFDL 3D tracer model, J. Geophys. Res. 85, 4527–4539.
NAS, 1977, Ozone and Other Photochemical Oxidants, National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
NAS, 1984, Global Tropospheric Chemistry: A Plan for Action, National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
Newell, R., Kidson, J., Vincent, D., and Boer, G., 1972, The General Circulation of the Tropical Atmosphere and Interactions with Extratropical Latitudes, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Pelon, J. and Megie, G., 1982, Ozone monitoring in the troposphere and lower stratosphere: Evaluation and operation of a ground-based lidar station, J. Geophys. Res. 87, 4947–4955.
Penkett, S., 1984, Ozone increases in ground-level European air, Nature 331, 14–15.
Pittock, A., 1977, Climatology of the vertical distribution of ozone over Aspendale, Quart. J. R. Met. Soc. 103, 575–584.
Prather, M., 1985, Continental sources of halocarbons and nitrous oxide, Nature 317, 221–225.
Prinn, R., Simmonds, P., Rasmussen, R., Rosen, R., Alyea, F., Cardelino, C., Crawford, A., Cunnold, D., Fraser, P., and Lovelock, J., 1983. The Atmospheric Lifetime Experiment, 1. Introduction, instrumentation, and overview, J. Geophys. Res. 88, 8353–8367.
Ramanathan, V., Cicerone, R., Singh, H., and Kiehl, J., 1985, Trace gas trends and their potential role in climate, J. Geophys. Res. 90, 5547–5566.
Warren, S., Hahn, C., London, J., Chervin, R., and Jenne, R., 1986, Global distribution of total cloud cover and cloud type over land, NCAR Technical Note TN-273+STR, Boulder, CO.
Wilcox, R., 1978, Total ozone trend significance from space and time variability of daily Dobson data, J. Appl. Met. 17, 405–409.
Wolberg, J., 1967, Prediction Analysis, D. Van Nostrand, Princeton.
Woodbury, G., and McCormick, M., 1986, Zonal and geographical distribution of Cirrus clouds determined from SAGE data, J. Geophys. Res. 91, 2775–2785.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Prinn, R.G. Toward an improved global network for determination of tropospheric ozone climatology and trends. J Atmos Chem 6, 281–298 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00053861
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00053861