Fifty years of balloon-borne ozone profile measurements at Uccle, Belgium: a short history, the scientific relevance, and the achievements in understanding the vertical ozone distribution

Van Malderen, Roeland; De Muer, Dirk; De Backer, Hugo; Poyraz, Deniz; Verstraeten, Willem W.; De Bock, Veerle; Delcloo, Andy W.; Mangold, Alexander; Laffineur, Quentin; Allaart, Marc; Fierens, Frans; Thouret, Valérie

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12385-2021

Articles | Volume 21, issue 16

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12385-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Atmospheric ozone and related species in the early 2020s:...

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12385-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 16

Research article

|

18 Aug 2021

Research article |

| 18 Aug 2021

Fifty years of balloon-borne ozone profile measurements at Uccle, Belgium: a short history, the scientific relevance, and the achievements in understanding the vertical ozone distribution

Roeland Van Malderen, Dirk De Muer, Hugo De Backer, Deniz Poyraz, Willem W. Verstraeten, Veerle De Bock, Andy W. Delcloo, Alexander Mangold, Quentin Laffineur, Marc Allaart, Frans Fierens, and Valérie Thouret

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12385-2021-supplement

Data sets

World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre WOUDC https://doi.org/10.17616/R32C87

Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change NDACC https://doi.org/10.17616/R3ZD10

MOZAIC/CARIBIC/IAGOS data IAGOS https://doi.org/10.25326/20

IRCELINE Belgian Interregional Environment Agency http://www.irceline.be

Aura Validation Data Center AVCD https://avdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/data/satellite/Aura/MLS/V04/L2GPOVP_Prof/O3/Uccle/

TES/Aura L2 Ozone Nadir V007 NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/AURA/TES/TL2O3N_L2.007

Model code and software

University of Saskatchewan, Atmospheric Research Group & Long-term Ozone Trends and Uncertainties in the Stratosphere (LOTUS) Group regression model USask ARG/LOTUS https://arg.usask.ca/docs/LOTUS_regression

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Short summary

The main aim of initiating measurements of the vertical distribution of the ozone concentration by means of ozonesondes attached to weather balloons at Uccle in 1969 was to improve weather forecasts. Since then, this measurement technique has barely changed, but the dense, long-term, and homogeneous Uccle dataset currently remains crucial for studying the temporal evolution of ozone from the surface to the stratosphere and is also the backbone of the validation of satellite ozone retrievals.