Articles | Volume 21, issue 16
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12385-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12385-2021
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

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Cited articles

Akritidis, D., Pozzer, A., and Zanis, P.: On the impact of future climate change on tropopause folds and tropospheric ozone, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 14387–14401, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-14387-2019, 2019. 
Antonescu, B., Vaughan, G., and Schultz, D. M.: A Five-Year Radar-Based Climatology of Tropopause Folds and Deep Convection over Wales, United Kingdom, Mon. Weather Rev., 141, 1693–1707, https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-12-00246.1, 2013. 
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Attmannspacher, W., de la Noé, J., de Muer, D., Lenoble, J., Mégie, G., Pelon, J., Pruvost, P., and Reiter, R.: European validation of SAGE II ozone profiles, J. Geophys. Res., 94, 8461– 8466, https://doi.org/10.1029/JD094iD06p08461, 1989. 
AVCD: Aura Validation Data Center [data set], Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Branch, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), available at: https://avdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/data/satellite/Aura/MLS/V04/L2GPOVP_Prof/O3/Uccle/, last access: 21 May 2021. 
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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.
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