Smoothness of ozone profiles: analysis of 11 years of ozone sonde measurements at Sodankylä

Abstract. This paper discusses the smoothness of vertical profiles of ozone concentrations. We describe the smoothness of ozone profiles via a characteristic scale of the profile fluctuations. The characteristic scale was computed for 11-years (1989-1999) ozone sonde data at Sodankylä. Mean values of the characteristic scale were determined. They are ~1km in the troposphere and ~1.4km in the lower stratosphere (up to 25km). Only slight seasonal variations of these parameters are observed.

The information about smoothness of ozone profiles is needed both in the instrumental design for defining the vertical resolution requirements and in the development of inversion algorithms from remote sensing measurements, in order to obtain the best accuracy in retrieved ozone profiles and sufficient resolution.