Investigating the long-term evolution of subtropical ozone profiles applying ground-based FTIR spectrometry [Discussion paper]

Abstract

This study investigates the long-term evolution of subtropical ozone profile time series (1999–2010) obtained from ground-based FTIR (Fourier Transform InfraRed) spectrometry at the Izaña Observatory ozone super-site. Different ozone retrieval strategies are examined, analysing the influence of an additional temperature retrieval and different constraints. The theoretical assessment reveals that the FTIR system is able to resolve four independent ozone layers with a precision of better than 6% in the troposphere and of better than 3% in the lower, middle and upper stratosphere. This total error includes the smoothing error, which dominates the random error budget.