Improving total column ozone retrievals by using cloud pressures derived from Raman scattering in the UV

The higher spectral resolution, coverage, and sampling of the Aura satellite ozone monitoring instrument (OMI), as compared with the total ozone mapping spectrometer (TOMS) should allow for improved ozone retrievals. By default, the TOMS‐like OMI total column ozone algorithm uses climatological cloud‐top pressures based on infrared (IR) measurements to estimate the column ozone below the clouds. Alternatively, cloud pressure can be retrieved using atmospheric rotational Raman scattering. The retrieved cloud pressures should be more consistent with assumptions made in the total ozone algorithm. Here, we use data from the global ozone monitoring experiment (GOME) to estimate total ozone using both the IR‐climatological and retrieved cloud pressures. The resulting ozone differences can be significant but do not exceed ∼15 DU. Use of the cloud pressure retrievals leads to a smoother distribution of ozone along a satellite track by reducing small spatial irregularities presumably caused by the difference between the retrieved and climatological cloud pressures.