Analysis of the eight-year trend in ozone depletion from empirical models of solar backscattered ultraviolet instrument degradation

Journal Article · Sun May 20 00:00:00 EDT 1990 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/JD095iD06p07403· OSTI ID:5087991

Herman, J R; Hudson, R D ^[1]; Serafino, G ^[2]

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1. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States)
2. Applied Research Corp., Landover, MD (United States)

Currently archived ozone data from the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV) spectrometer experiment on the Nimbus 7 satellite has been reported to show large global decreases in the amount of atmospheric ozone, both total content and as a function of altitude, for the period from 1978 to 1987. Analysis of atmospheric albedo data leading to these reported trends was based on empirical models of the SUBV spectrometer and diffuser plate degradation with time. The central problem in analyzing SBUV data is to separately specify the diffuser plate degradation. Ratios of radiance to solar irradiance used to obtain ozone amounts are proportional only to diffuser reflectivity and independent of any spectrometer degradation. A new class of explicitly empirical models have been developed that produce a better fit to all of the SUBV solar flux data. The models have a single free parameter to separately specify the diffuser plate and spectrometer degradation. This parameter must be within a narrow range to bring the calculated ozone trend into approximate agreement with data from the Dobson network, Solar Mesospheric Explorer (SME) and Stratospheric Aerosol Gas Experiment (SAGE) satellites, or with the different trends reported from the Umkehr ground stations. It is shown that outside sources of ozone data must be used to obtain a unique solution from SBUV radiance data within the precision necessary to determine the existence of a global annual ozone decrease. A correction factor is given as a function of time and altitude that brings the SBUV data into approximate agreement with SAGE, SME, and Dobson ozone trends. The currently archived SBUV ozone data should be used with caution for periods of analysis exceeding 1 year, since it is likely that the yearly decreases contained in the archived data are too large.

• OSTI ID: 5087991
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States), Vol. 95:D6; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
OZONE LAYER
DATA ANALYSIS
ALBEDO
ALTITUDE
BACKSCATTERING
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CORRECTIONS
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
LOSSES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
OZONE
RELIABILITY
SATELLITES
SERVICE LIFE
SOLAR RADIATION
SPECTROMETERS
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
EVALUATION
LAYERS
RADIATIONS
SCATTERING
STELLAR RADIATION
540120* - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)