In-flight validation of Aura MLS ozone with CAFS partial ozone columns

It was used to validate the colocated daytime Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) partial ozone columns along the aircraft tracks over diverse geophysical conditions. Results show that the MLS v.1.5 and CAFS ozone columns agree to better than 3% at pressure levels of 100 and 146 hPa, and to better than 5% at 215 hPa level.

The partial ozone column differences between the two systems were the largest during the Polar AVE (PAVE) 2005 campaign (polar region, ∼250 hPa pressure level), and the smallest during the CRAVE 2006 campaign (tropics, ∼100 hPa pressure level). Overall, the averaged bias between the MLS and CAFS partial ozone column is about 2%, and the standard deviation of the differences is about 2%. The v.2.2 update of the MLS data tends to reduce the bias to less than 1%.