An intercomparison of tropospheric ozone retrievals derived from two Aura instruments and measurements in western North America in 2006

Two recently developed methods for quantifying tropospheric ozone abundances based on Aura data, the Trajectory‐enhanced Tropospheric Ozone Residual (TTOR) and an assimilation of Aura data into Goddard Earth Observing System Version 4 (ASM), are compared to ozone measurements from ozonesonde data collected in April–May 2006 during the INTEX Ozonesonde Network Study 2006 (IONS‐06) campaign. Both techniques use Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) observations. Statistics on column ozone amounts for both products are presented. In general, the assimilation compares better to sonde integrated ozone to 200 hPa (28.6% difference for TTOR versus 2.7% difference for ASM), and both products are biased low. To better characterize the performance of ASM, ozone profiles based on the assimilation are compared to those from ozonesondes. We noted slight negative biases in the lower troposphere, and slight positive biases in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UT/ LS), where we observed the greatest variability. Case studies were used to further understand ASM performance. We examine one case from 17 April 2006 at Bratt’s Lake, Saskatchewan, where geopotential height gradients appear to be related to an underestimation in the ASM in the UT/LS region. A second case, from 21 April 2006 at Trinidad Head, California, is a situation where the overprediction of ozone in the UT/LS region does not appear to be due to current dynamic conditions but seems to be related to uncertainty in the flow pattern and large differences in MLS observations upstream.