Seven years of total ozone from the TOMS instrument‐A report on data quality

Abstract

Seven years of TOMS total ozone data are currency available. Recently a new ozone retrieval algorithm based on improved ozone absorption cross section was implemented that has introduced 6‐7% discontinuity in the archived data sets at the end of the 5th year of instrument operation. Until all data are reprocessed with the new algorithm users can use a table of correction factors given in this paper to make the data set internally consistent. This paper also presents a comparison of TOMS results with Amundsen Scott Dobson station. Though the agreement in most years is good, in 1983‐84 the Dobson station reported unusually high values of ozone while TOMS saw the very low ozone values associated with the Antarctica ozone hole.