Comparisons of airborne lidar measurements of ozone with airborne in situ measurements during the 1995 Southern Oxidants Study

As part of the 1995 Southern Oxidants Study (SOS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration airborne ozone lidar was deployed during June and July to provide detailed three‐dimensional lower tropospheric ozone distribution information in the Nashville, Tennessee, area. The airborne portion of the study included six aircraft instrumented with an assortment of in situ and remote sensors. Results of comparisons between the ozone values obtained using the lidar and the values obtained using in situ instrumentation aboard other aircraft are presented. High resolution (90 m vertical and 520 m horizontal corresponding to 8 s at a flight speed of 65 m/s) was maintained during the analysis of the lidar data which caused statistical variations in the calculated ozone concentrations from 3 ppbv (5% for typical ozone concentrations encountered during the study) at a range of 1500 m from the lidar to 11 ppbv (17%) at a range of 2500 m from the lidar. However, the lidar ozone concentration measurements compare favorably with the in situ values, with the average offset less than 10 ppbv (16%) for each flight, and the average magnitude of the offsets over all the flights at 4.3 ppbv (7%).