Temperature retrieval from stratospheric O₃ and NO₃ GOMOS data

Abstract

[1] The chemistry of some species is strongly dependent on temperature. The typical example is the nighttime NO 3 chemistry. We use a simple steady state relationship for NO 3 to derive temperature from measurements of O 3 and NO 3 by the satellite GOMOS (Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars) instrument. GOMOS-retrieved temperatures are validated against ECMWF (European Centre for Medium range Weather Forecast) temperatures. The temperature between 30 and 40 km can be retrieved with a bias of 3°K and a precision of about 3°K. The small bias can easily be removed by slightly adjusting the temperature-dependency of the NO 2 + O 3 reaction in the steady state relationship. The results demonstrate that measurements of chemical species contain useful information on the temperature that can be extracted when the temperature-dependent chemistry is known accurately. This temperature-dependency of chemical systems could in the long term be exploited in weather data assimilation system.

Response of tropical stratospheric O<sub>3</sub>, NO<sub>2</sub> and NO<sub>3</sub> to the equatorial Quasi-Biennial Oscillation and to temperature as seen from GOMOS/ENVISAT

“…The NO 3 concentration is known to be very sensitive to temperature (Marchand et al, 2007). It is then not surprising to observe that the evolution of monthly averaged NO 3 mixing ratios is well correlated with the evolution of ECMWF temperature interpolated to the location of observations (Fig.…”

Measurement from sun-synchronous orbit of a reaction rate controlling the diurnal NO<sub>x</sub> cycle in the stratosphere

“…In another study using the GOMOS instrument, stratospheric temperature was retrieved using measurements of NO 3 and ozone using knowledge of the temperature dependency of Reaction (R2) (Marchand et al, 2007). Comparisons of the retrieved temperature against ECMWF temperatures suggested that the rate of Reaction (R2) agreed with the accepted reaction rate determined from laboratory measurements.…”

Global ozone monitoring by occultation of stars: an overview of GOMOS measurements on ENVISAT

“…GOMOS-retrieved temperatures are warmer by about 2 K than ECMWF temperatures. When more stars are included in the study, the bias is found to be 2.67 K (from Marchand et al, 2007).…”

“…It is therefore an important region, where the comparison of actually measured ozone density may be compared to the predictions of a Chemistry Transport Model (CTM), in order to detect potential deficiencies in the chemistry prescribed in the models. Marchand et al (2004Marchand et al ( , 2007 have carried out such an exercise, as summarized in Sect. 7, resulting in a suggestion of a significant revision of the temperature dependence of one constant, namely the reaction between ozone and NO 2 .…”

“…This was done by Marchand et al (2007) in an attempt, never demonstrated before, to determine the temperature from chemical measurements. Figure 36 indicates the GOMOS retrieved temperature for a number of occultations of the star Antares (GOMOS star number 16) as a function of ECMWF temperature.…”