Determination of Total Ozone Amount from TIROS Radiance Measurements

Abstract

Total ozone amounts are determined from atmospheric radiances measured by the TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS). The retrieval procedure is one of linear regression where total ozone amounts derived from Dobson spectrophotometer measurements are regressed against “clear” radiances that are measured in three of the TOVS spectral channels and converted to brightness temperatures. This paper discusses the retrieval technique, the accuracy of the ozone data products compared to an independent set of Dobson measurements used for validation, and comparisons with zonal-averaged total ozone data derived from the Nimbus-7 Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV) instrument.