GROUND-BASED MICROWAVE OBSERVATIONS OF OZONE IN THE UPPER-STRATOSPHERE AND MESOSPHERE

A 9-month-long series of measurements of ozone in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere is reported. The measurements are presented as monthly averages of profiles in blocks of roughly 20 min local time and as night-to-day ratios. An error analysis predicts accuracies of 5-26% for the monthly profiles and 2.5-9% for the ratios. The data are compared to historical data from SME and limb infrared monitor of the stratosphere (LIMS), and it is shown how to remove the effect of different vertical resolution from the comparisons. The microwave data typically agree to better than 10% with SME and nighttime LIMS ozone at all altitudes below the 0.1-mbar surface. Comparison of the microwave night-to-day ratio with the corresponding ratio from LIMS suggests that nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium effects in the LIMS daytime data exceed 10% at all pressures less than or equal to 1 mbar.