Validation of the Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometer-II (ILAS-II) Version 1.4 nitrous oxide and methane profiles

• This study assesses polar stratospheric nitrous oxide (N(2)O) and methane (CH(4)) data from the Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometer-II (ILAS-II) on board the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite-II (ADEOS-II) retrieved by the Version 1.4 retrieval algorithm. The data were measured between January and October 2003. Vertical profiles of ILAS-II volume mixing ratio (VMR) data are compared with data from two balloon-borne instruments, the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS-B) and the MkIV instrument, as well as with two satellite sensors, the Odin Sub-Millimetre Radiometer (SMR) for N(2)O and the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) for CH(4). Relative percentage differences between the ILAS-II and balloon/satellite data and their median values are calculated in 10-ppbv-wide bins for N(2)O (from 0 to 400 ppbv) and in 0.05-ppmv-wide bins for CH(4) (from 0 to 2 ppmv) in order to assess systematic differences between the ILAS-II and balloon/satellite data. According to this study, the characteristics of the ILAS-II Version 1.4 N(2)O and CH(4) data differ between hemispheres. For ILAS-II N(2)O VMR larger than 250 ppbv, the ILAS-II N(2)O agrees with the balloon/SMR N(2)O within +/- 20% in both hemispheres. The ILAS-II N(2)O in the VMR range from 30-50 to 250 ppbv (corresponding to altitudes of similar to 17-30 km in the Northern Hemisphere (NH, mainly outside the polar vortex) and similar to 13-21 km in the Southern Hemisphere (SH, mainly inside the polar vortex) is smaller by similar to 10-30% than the balloon/SMR N(2)O. For ILAS-II N(2)O VMR smaller than 30 ppbv (>similar to 21 km) in the SH, the differences between the ILAS-II and SMR N(2)O are within +/- 10 ppbv. For ILAS-II CH(4) VMR larger than 1 ppmv (similar to 30 km) and the ILAS-II CH(4) for its VMR smaller than 1 ppmv (>similar to 25 km) only in the NH, are abnormally small compared to the balloon/satellite data.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Meteorologi och atmosfärforskning (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

ADEOS

SMR

ILAS

Odin

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