Estimation of ozone with total ozone portable spectroradiometer instruments. I. Theoretical model and error analysis

Appl Opt. 1996 Oct 20;35(30):6076-83. doi: 10.1364/AO.35.006076.

Abstract

Inexpensive devices to measure solar UV irradiance are available to monitor atmospheric ozone, for example, total ozone portable spectroradiometers (TOPS instruments). A procedure to convert these measurements into ozone estimates is examined. For well-characterized filters with 7-nm FWHM bandpasses, the method provides ozone values (from 304- and 310-nm channels) with less than 0.4% error attributable to inversion of the theoretical model. Analysis of sensitivity to model assumptions and parameters yields estimates of ±3% bias in total ozone results with dependence on total ozone and path length. Unmodeled effects of atmospheric constituents and instrument components can result in additional ±2% errors.