Version 8 IMK-IAA MIPAS ozone profiles: nominal observation mode

A new global O-3 data product retrieved from the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) spectra with the IMK-IAA MIPAS data processor has been released. These data are based on ESA version 8 recalibrated radiance spectra with improved temporal stability. Changes in the level-2 processing with respect to previous data versions include the following: (1) the retrievals use improved temperature data and thus suffer less from the propagation of related errors. (2) The background continuum is now considered up to 58 km. (3) A priori information is now used to constrain the retrieval of the radiance offset. (4) Water vapour is fitted jointly with ozone to minimize the impact of interfering water lines. (5) A more adequate regularization has been chosen. (6) Ozone absorption lines in the MIPAS A band (685-980 cm(-1)) are used almost exclusively because of inconsistencies in spectroscopic data in the MIPAS AB band (1010-1180 cm(-1)). Only at altitudes above 50 km, where A-band ozone lines do not provide sufficient information, are ozone lines in the MIPAS AB band used. (7) Temperature-adjusted climatologies of vibrational temperatures of O-3 and CO2 are considered to account for non-local thermodynamic equilibrium radiation. Ozone errors are estimated to be less than 10 % in the altitude range 20-50 km. The error budget is dominated by the spectroscopic errors, followed by the uncertainty of the instrumental line shape function, the gain calibration error, and the spectral noise. The error contribution of interfering gases is almost negligible. The vertical resolution depends on altitude and atmospheric conditions. In 2002-2004 it varies between 2.5 km at the lowest altitudes and 6 km at 70 km, while in 2005-2012 it covers 2 to 5.5 km in the same altitude range. The horizontal smearing in terms of the full width at half maximum of the horizontal component of the two-dimensional averaging kernel matrix is smaller than, or approximately equal to, the distance between two subsequent limb scans at all altitudes. This implies that the horizontal resolution is sampling-limited or optimal, respectively. An additional data version is made available that is free of the formal a priori information and thus more user-friendly for certain applications. Version 8 ozone results show a better consistency between the two MIPAS measurement periods. They seem to be more realistic than preceding data versions in terms of long-term stability, as at least a part of the drift is corrected. Further, the representation of elevated stratopause situations is improved.