Verification of satellite ozone/temperature profile products and ozone effective height/temperature over Kunming, China

Ozonesonde data from November 2013 to April 2015 over Kunming, China are used to verify ozone and temperature profile retrievals from two spaceborne instruments, the version 4.2 product from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on the NASA Aura satellite and the version 6.0 product from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on the NASA Aqua satellite. We calculated and compared the ozone effective height H _eff and effective temperature T _eff , which are two important parameters in ground-based total ozone retrieval through the use of various profile datasets. This is used to verify the accuracy of the operative values (H _eff(0) = 23 km, T _eff(0) = −46.3 °C (or −45 °C)) from the World Meteorological Organization. The results show that the deviation of MLS and AIRS ozone profiles from ozone sounding data has significant oscillation and scatter in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. The average difference of MLS at 82.5 hPa is (80.5 ± 65.1) %, and that of AIRS at 70 and 100 hPa are (105.6 ± 74.9) % and (107.0 ± 67.8) %, respectively. The two satellite temperature profiles have differences within ±3 °C and can effectively describe the vertical distribution and variation of temperature. When calculating the H _eff and T _eff , upper stratospheric data missing from the sounding data must be filled in by the satellite profile data; otherwise the calculated results will show large errors of 3.2 km and 3.3 °C. The H _eff and T _eff at Kunming are respectively 24.36 to 25.51 km and −48.3 to −43.6 °C. The operational H _eff and T _eff used at Kunming ozone observation station clearly do not conform to the actual situation and must be corrected.