On the Quality of ECC Ozonesondes Data: Improvements of the Ground Based Data for Satellites Validation

The ozonesondes networks play an important role in the validation of the satellites instruments because of their high altitude resolution from the ground up to the mid-stratosphere and the very long term record starting in the late 70-ies. However, there is a lack of homogeneity of the ECC ozonesondes data from the various stations around the world. Progresses have been made over the last 10 years to identify the major source of biases affecting the ozonesondes profiles (see [1] and [2]), in particular regarding the sensing solution composition, the back-ground current and the sonde provider. To illustrate these effects on real data comparison and to test first order correction procedures, SCIAMACHY ozone columns are compared to three different processings of the Nairobi and Payerne aerological stations data.