Total Column Ozone Retrieval From the Infrared Measurements of a Geostationary Imager

A new algorithm has been developed to retrieve total column ozone (TOZ) from the infrared measurements of a geostationary satellite imager such as the Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) aboard Himawari-8 and the advanced meteorological imager flying with the second generation geostationary satellite of South Korea. Based on a nonlinear optimal estimation method, this operational algorithm iteratively retrieves TOZ from AHI thermal measurements under clear-sky conditions as well as over low clouds at 10-min intervals with 6-km spatial resolutions. The first guess for ozone is prepared by combining a monthly climatology with the daily updated TOZ from polar orbiting satellites, while the first guess for the temperature and humidity profiles are from a numerical weather prediction model. AHI contains only one ozone absorption channel (9.6 μm), providing information contents (degrees of freedom for signal) of about 0.98 for the ozone retrieval. However, the study shows that the retrieved TOZ successfully captures the temporal and latitudinal variations of ozone flow particularly at mid- and high-latitudes. A validation using the Ozone Monitoring Instrument, Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), and ozonesondes shows that the AHI TOZ are in a good agreement with the three references with mean difference of 2.5%, -0.5%, and 2.6%, respectively. This impressive performance is attributed to the improvements in both first-guess information and the accuracy of the retrieved temperature and humidity profiles. In particular, the good agreement shown in the comparison with the night-time IASI TOZ suggests potential benefits of using the retrieved TOZ for a continuous monitoring of global ozone evolution with high spatial resolution.