Assessment and applications of NASA ozone data products derived from Aura OMI/MLS satellite measurements in context of the GMI chemical transport model

Abstract Measurements from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), both on board the Aura spacecraft, have been used to produce daily global maps of column and profile ozone since August 2004. Here we compare and evaluate three strategies to obtain daily maps of tropospheric and stratospheric ozone from OMI and MLS measurements: trajectory mapping, direct profile retrieval, and data assimilation. Evaluation is based on an assessment that includes validation using ozonesondes and comparisons with the Global Modeling Initiative (GMI) chemical transport model. We investigate applications of the three ozone data products from near‐decadal and interannual time scales to day‐to‐day case studies. Interannual changes in zonal mean tropospheric ozone from all of the products in any latitude range are of the order 1–2 Dobson units while changes (increases) over the 8 year Aura record investigated vary by 2–4 Dobson units. It is demonstrated that all of the ozone products can measure and monitor exceptional tropospheric ozone events including major forest fire and pollution transport events. Stratospheric ozone during the Aura record has several anomalous interannual events including split stratospheric warmings in the Northern Hemisphere extratropics that are well captured using the data assimilation ozone profile product. Data assimilation with continuous daily global coverage and vertical ozone profile information is the best of the three strategies at generating a global tropospheric and stratospheric ozone product for science applications.