ESTIMATION OF OZONE WITH TOTAL OZONE PORTABLE SPECTRORADIOMETER INSTRUMENTS .1. THEORETICAL-MODEL AND ERROR ANALYSIS

Inexpensive devices to measure solar UV irradiance are available to mo nitor atmospheric ozone, for example, total ozone portable spectroradi ometers (TOPS instruments). A procedure to convert these measurements into ozone estimates is examined. For well-characterized filters with 7-nm FWHM bandpasses, the method provides ozone values (from 304- and 310-nm channels) with less than 0.4% error attributable to inversion o f the theoretical model. Analysis of sensitivity to model assumptions and parameters yields estimates of +/-3% bias in total ozone results w ith dependence on total ozone and path length. Unmodeled effects of at mospheric constituents and instrument components can result in additio nal +/-2% errors. (C) 1996 Optical Society of America