Total-ozone imaging over North America with GOES-8 infrared measurements

infrared observations from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Sate llite (GOES-8) are used to provide high-resolution synoptic maps of total o zone over North America for 23/24 February 1996. The infrared retrievals ar e validated with total ozone measured by the Global Ozone Monitoring Experi ment instrument. In the GOES-derived total-ozone maps, one can identify fin e-scale structures. A prominent one is a slow-moving, slender filament with a typical contrast of 30 Dobson units, stretching across North America alo ng the 40 degrees N latitude circle. A high-resolution ozone simulation usi ng European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts winds for this period also displays total-ozone filaments characterized by high contrasts. There are more filamentary structures in the model.