Application of a modified DOAS method for total ozone retrieval from GOME data at high polar latitudes Original Research Article

Since 1995, the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) on board the second European Remote Sensing satellite provides information about spatial distribution and temporal variation of total ozone. Current operational data products are generated using the Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) technique. Various validation exercises indicate shortcomings in the current retrieval using the standard DOAS approach. Especially under ozone hole conditions at high polar latitudes GOME tends to overestimate total ozone as compared to ground-based measurements. In this study, we introduce a modified DOAS method for ozone retrieval from GOME which fits directly the vertical columns rather than slant columns. We present preliminary results which demonstrate the advantage of the new approach. It will be shown that not only the differences to ground-based data are reduced but also the fit residuals are improved in comparison with the operational retrieval.