Total column ozone in New Zealand and in the UK in the 1950s
<p>Total column ozone measurements reach back almost a century. Historical column ozone data are important not only for obtaining a long-term perspective of changes of the ozone layer but arguably also as diagnostics of lower-stratospheric or tropopause-level flow in time periods of sparse upp...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2020-11-01
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| Series: | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| Online Access: | https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/20/14333/2020/acp-20-14333-2020.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>Total column ozone measurements reach back almost a century. Historical
column ozone data are important not only for obtaining a long-term perspective of changes
of the ozone layer but arguably also as diagnostics of lower-stratospheric
or tropopause-level flow in time periods of sparse upper-air observations.
With the exception of a few high-quality records such as that from Arosa,
Switzerland, ozone science has almost exclusively focused on data since the
International Geophysical Year (IGY) in 1957–1958, although earlier series exist.
In the early 2000s, we digitised and re-evaluated many pre-IGY series.
Here we add a series from Wellington, New Zealand, from 1951 to 1959. We
re-evaluated the data from the original observation sheets and performed
quality control analysis, and here we present the data. The day-to-day variability
can be used to assess the quality of reanalysis products, since the data
cover a region and time period with only few upper-air data. Comparison with
total column ozone in the reanalyses ERA-PreSAT (which assimilates upper-air
data) and 20CRv3 and CERA-20C (which do not assimilate upper-air data) shows
high correlations with all three. Although trend quality is doubtful (no
calibration information and no intercomparisons are available), combining
the record with other available data (including historical data from
Australian locations) allows a 70-year perspective of ozone changes over the
southern mid-latitudes. The series will be available from the World Ozone and
Ultraviolet Data Centre. Finally, we also present a short series from
Downham Market, UK, covering November 1950 to October 1951, and publish it
with further historical data series that were previously described but not
published.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 1680-7316 1680-7324 |