Ozone vertical distribution and total content using a ground-based active remote sensing technique

Abstract

The evaluation of possible perturbations of anthropogenic origin on the Earth environment has become increasingly important with the development of industrial and agricultural activities. Among these the depletion of the ozone layer under the influence of chemically active minor constituents produced by anthropogenic sources is still under question, thus emphasizing the importance of ozone monitoring in the atmosphere. Beside classical systems, such as the Dobson spectrometer and Brewer or ECC sondes, new techniques of ozone monitoring are being developed which include passive IR and microwave spectrometry and active IR and UV laser soundings¹. They should soon allow complementary routine measurements. We have previously described² the UV lidar system set up at the Observatoire de Haute Provence (44° N, 6° E) in the south of France and the methodology of the differential absorption laser technique (DIAL) which provide routine measurements of the ozone vertical distribution from the ground up to 25 km. We report here the first active ground-based measurements of the ozone distribution at higher altitudes up to 40 km and of the total ozone content using the same system.