Validation of ACE-FTS N2O measurements

The Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE), also known as SCISAT, was launched on 12 August 2003,carrying two instruments that measure vertical profiles of atmospheric constituents using the solar occultation technique.One of these instruments, the ACE Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS), is measuring volume mixing ratio profiles of nitrous oxide (N2O) from the upper troposphere to the lower mesosphere. In this study, the quality of the ACE-FTS version 2.2 N2O data is assessed rough comparisons with coincident measurements made by other satellite, balloon-borne, aircraft, and ground-based instruments.These consist of vertical profile comparisons with the SMR, MLS, and MIPAS satellite instruments, multiple aircraft flights of ASUR, and single balloon flights of SPIRALE and FIRS-2, and artial column comparisons with a network of ground-based Fourier Transform InfraRed spectrometers(FTIRs). Overall, the quality of the ACE-FTS version 2.2 N2O VMR profiles appears to be good over the entire altitude range from 5 to 60 km. Between 6 and 30 km, the meanabsolute differences for the satellite comparisons lie between -42 ppbv and +17 ppbv, with most within 20 ppbv, correspondingto relative deviations from the mean that are mostly within 5%. Between 18 and 30 km, the mean absolute differences are generally within 10 ppbv, with relative deviations from the mean within 20%, except for the aircraft and balloon comparisons. From 30 to 60 km, the mean absolute differences are within 4 ppbv, and are mostly between -2 and +1 ppbv. Given the small N2O VMR in this region, therelative deviations from the mean are therefore large at these altitudes, with most suggesting a negative bias in the ACEFTS data between 30 and 50 km. In the comparisons with the FTIRs, the mean relative differences between the ACE-FTS and FTIR partial columns are within 6.6% for eleven of thetwelve contributing stations. This mean relative difference is negative at eight stations, suggesting a small negative