Diurnal ozone variations in the stratosphere revealed in observations from the Superconducting Submillimeter‐Wave Limb‐Emission Sounder (SMILES) on board the International Space Station (ISS)

Abstract

[1] Considerable uncertainties remain in the global pattern of diurnal variation in stratospheric ozone, particularly lower to middle stratospheric ozone, which is the principal contributor to total column ozone. The Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave LimbEmission Sounder (SMILES) attached to the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) on board the International Space Station (ISS) was developed to gather high-quality global measurements of stratospheric ozone at various local times, with the aid of superconducting mixers cooled to 4K by a compact mechanical cooler. Using the SMILES dataset, as well as data from nudged chemistry-climate models (MIROC3.2-CTM and SD-WACCM), we show that the SMILES observational data have revealed the global pattern of diurnal ozone variations throughout the stratosphere. We also found that these variations can be explained by both photochemistry and dynamics. The peak-to-peak difference in the stratospheric ozone mixing ratio (total column ozone) reached 8% (1%) over the course of a day. This variation needs to be considered when merging ozone data from different satellite measurements and even from measurements made using one specific instrument at different local times.

Daily ozone cycle in the stratosphere: global, regional and seasonal behaviour modelled with the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model

“…2 the strength of D O 3 differs for March, June, September and December, which indicates a seasonal variation in the daily ozone cycle. The existence of a seasonal variation of the daily ozone cycle was also suggested by Sakazaki et al (2013). We discuss the seasonal effects in more detail in Sect.…”

“…Satellite-based observations from SMILES (Kikuchi et al, 2013), SABER and MLS showed a morning minimum and a late-afternoon maximum in the daily ozone cycle in the tropics and subtropics (Huang et al, 2008;Sakazaki et al, 2013). In Fig.…”

“…Later, Studer et al (2014) derived a monthly climatology of diurnal variation in stratospheric and mesospheric ozone from 17 years of GROMOS observations. Satellite-based observations from SMILES (Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder) (Kikuchi et al, 2013), SABER (Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry) (Russell et al, 1999) and MLS (Microwave Limb Sounder) (Barth et al, 1983) showed the existence of a daily ozone cycle in the stratosphere at tropical and midlatitudes (Huang et al, 2008;Sakazaki et al, 2013). There is also some evidence that these data show good agreement with model data at tropical latitudes (Sakazaki et al, 2013).…”

“…Aside from the trend analysis, current research considers ozone as a source of excitation of atmospheric tides which in turn affect the daily ozone cycle (Sakazaki et al, 2013). Further, fundamental research on photochemistry by modelling the diurnal variations of ozone, ozone-depleting substances and other trace gases (Muncaster et al, 2012;Khosravi et al, 2013) is investigated as is the derivation of reaction rates (Kuribayashi et al, 2014).…”

Sunset–sunrise difference in solar occultation ozone measurements (SAGE II, HALOE, and ACE–FTS) and its relationship to tidal vertical winds

“…Recently, Sakazaki et al (2013a; hereafter S13) revealed diurnal variations in ozone concentration from the lower to upper stratosphere using data from both the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES) and chemical transport models (CTMs). They showed that the peak-to-peak difference in ozone levels reaches 8 % during a day.…”