Retrieval of the atmospheric ozone profiles from microwave measurements at 2.7 mm

The necessity of accurate monitoring of the ozone concentration on a global scale is caused by increased ozone destruction in the stratosphere. Ozone concentration may be measured from the ground, balloon, aircraft or satellite by microwave spectrometers operating at the 101, 110, 142 or 206 GHz ozone lines. An original portable spectrometer operating at 2.7 mm (110 GHz line) is used at the Central Aerological Observatory for profiling the stratospheric ozone. In the processing of ground-based measurements a difficult problem is to account for the tropospheric absorption caused by oxygen and water vapour. It is well known that the vertical distribution of oxygen is sufficiently stable in contrast with the changeable content of the water vapour in the atmosphere. The flight of a high-altitude balloon with a spectrometer on board allows one to carry out microwave measurements above the top of the troposphere. The contribution of the tropospheric absorption may be evaluated from comparison of these data with simultaneous ground-based measurements