The determination of tropospheric ozone from infra-red emission spectra

✍ Scribed by R. M. Goody; W. T. Roach

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1958
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 681 KB
• Volume: 84
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0035-9009
• DOI: 10.1002/qj.49708436003

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The emission spectrum of the sky has been measured on 127 occasions at Ascot in a period of 12 months in 1956 and 1957, and the observations have been interpreted in terms of the total amount of ozone between 1,000 and 300 mb. The ozone amount in this layer varies about a mean value of 13 × 10^−3^ cm STP and an individual determination is accurate to about ± 3 × 10^−3^ cm STP.

The results suggest that fluctuations in the total ozone amount are controlled by different mechanisms in spring and the rest of the year, and that during this period advection may be the dominating effect. There is evidence that some of the tropospheric ozone has come from the upper stratosphere, but it also seems probable that much has been advected into these latitudes.

Our results show very little relation to ground‐level chemical measurements made just after mid‐day. This disagreement might possibly be due to secondary sources of ozone near ground‐level.