Simplified rules for SAGE II ozone data usage

While space-based measurements provide consistent, global, long-term measurements of radiatively active trace gases and aerosols, they are indirect (based on optical properties of their targets) and therefore confounded by non-target gases and particulate matter. As a result, our ability to accurately detect small, but important, changes in concentrations of constituents, such as ozone, is challenged by measurement uncertainties. Since space-based measurements of stratospheric composition started, a plethora of 'generally accepted' screening methods have been developed, tailored to each measurement system and to each anticipated use of the data. These methods are often inconsistent, ad-hoc, and untraceable and seldom revised even after significant revisions to the data themselves. Here we will present the newly developed and simplified SAGE II ozone data usage rules which are based on how the measurements were made. This new approach results in more SAGE II data being available for use as well as a more robust elimination of potentially erroneous data.