Quality assessment of ozone total column amounts as monitored by ground-based solar absorption spectrometry in the near infrared (> 3000 cm−1) [Discussion paper]

his study examines the possibility of ground-based remote-sensing ozone total column amounts (OTC) from spectral signatures at 3040 and 4030 cm−1. These spectral regions are routinely measured by the NDACC (Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change) ground-based FTIR (Fourier transform infraRed) experiments. In addition, they are potentially detectable by the TCCON (Total Carbon Column Observing Network) FTIR instruments. The ozone retrieval strategy presented here estimates the OTC from NDACC FTIR high-resolution spectra with a theoretical precision of about 2 and 5% in the 3040 and 4030 cm−1 regions, respectively. Empirically, these OTC products are validated by inter-comparison to FTIR OTC reference retrievals in the 1000 cm−1 spectral region (standard reference for NDACC ozone products), using an 8-year FTIR time series (2005–2012) taken at the subtropical ozone supersite of the Izaña Atmospheric Observatory (Tenerife, Spain). Associated with the weaker ozone signatures at the higher wave number regions, the 3040 and 4030 cm−1 retrievals show lower vertical sensitivity than the 1000 cm−1 retrievals. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 284421 (NORS project) and from the Ministerio de Economía and Competitividad from Spain for the project CGL2012-37505 (NOVIA project). M. Schneider and Y. González are supported by the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant agreement no. 256961 and E. Sepúlveda is supported by the NOVIA Project.