An Ozonesonde Network and Resource for Remote Sensing Research and Education

Abstract Balloon-borne ozone instrumentation (ozonesondes), launched at fixed sites, is used to study local patterns in stratospheric and tropospheric ozone and to provide validation for satellite ozone products and model calculations of ozone. A paucity of coordinated ozonesonde data in the southern hemisphere tropics is being remedied in a 3-year project of coordinated ozonesondes launches at 10 sites. The data are available to the scientific community at the SHADOZ website at NASA/Goddard. Stations and their operational characteristics, with examples of ozone observations, are given. One expectation of SHADOZ is that wide dissemination of data and interaction with users and field projects will leverage local funding to maintain infrastructure and operations. SHADOZ data are well-suited for educational projects in which students learn about regional ozone patterns. I. NEED FOR TROPICAL OZONESONDE DATA In the past 5 years, new tropical tropospheric ozone data products have been developed from TOMS and other satellites [Fishman and Brackett, 1997; Hudson and Thompson, 1998; Thompson and Hudson, 1999]. During this period, chemical-transport models have been developed that calculate ozone profiles. There is a lack of ozone profile measurements in the tropics and subs'tropics for evaluation of these data sets. In the southern hemisphere, at least a dozen stations have operated ozone profiling instrumentation (ozonesondes) in the past decade but not consistently over time