Observation of Ozone Column Densities by the Cloud Imaging and Particle Size Experiment on the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere Explorer

The Cloud Imaging and Particle Size (CIPS) instrument on the AIM spacecraft is a 4-camera nadir pointed imager with a bandpass centered at 265 nm, and a field of view of 120 by 80 degrees. The spatial resolution of CIPS observations is 2x1 km in the nadir. The goal of CIPS is to observe Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs) and determine their absolute albedo and particle size distribution. When PMCs are not present, CIPS observes only the sunlit Rayleigh-scattered background brightness, which is controlled by the column ozone abundance above 40 km. These observations are made over a range of scattering angles from 35 to 150 degrees. Following the technique developed for the Solar Backscattered UltraViolet (SBUV) instruments by McPeter's et al. [1980], the ozone column density and the ratio of the ozone and air scale heights may be determined by CIPS observations. We have applied that technique to non-PMC observations by CIPS. We compare CIPS ozone results to historical and current observations, including those of SBUV.