Validation of the TOLNet lidars: the Southern California Ozone Observation Project (SCOOP)

The North America-based Tropospheric Ozone Lidar Network (TOLNet) was recently established to provide high spatiotemporal vertical profiles of ozone, to better understand physical processes driving tropospheric ozone variability and to validate the tropospheric ozone measurements of upcoming spaceborne missions such as Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring Pollution (TEMPO). The network currently comprises six tropospheric ozone lidars, four of which are mobile instruments deploying to the field a few times per year, based on campaign and science needs. In August 2016, all four mobile TOLNet lidars were brought to the fixed TOLNet site of JPL Table Mountain Facility for the 1-week-long Southern California Ozone Observation Project (SCOOP). This intercomparison campaign, which included 400 h of lidar measurements and 18 ozonesonde launches, allowed for the unprecedented simultaneous validation of five of the six TOLNet lidars. For measurements between 3 and 10 km a.s.l., a mean difference of 0.7 ppbv (1.7 %), with a root-mean-square deviation of 1.6 ppbv or 2.4 %, was found between the lidars and ozonesondes, which is well within the combined uncertainties of the two measurement techniques. The few minor differences identified were typically associated with the known limitations of the lidars at the profile altitude extremes (i.e., first 1 km above ground and at the instruments' highest retrievable altitude). As part of a large homogenization and quality control effort within the network, many aspects of the TOLNet in-house data processing algorithms were also standardized and validated. This thorough validation of both the measurements and retrievals builds confidence as to the high quality and reliability of the TOLNet ozone lidar profiles for many years to come, making TOLNet a valuable ground-based reference network for tropospheric ozone profiling.