Equatorial ozone profile comparisons using OSO-8 UVMCS and Nimbus 4 BUV data

Abstract

A comparison is made of equatorial ozone altitude profiles derived from data taken during near-coincident passes of the French solar occultation experiment on OSO-8 and the BUV instrument on Nimbus 4. The period of observation is August through October 1975. OSO-8 data are confined to sunset and the BUV measures ozone during the day for a range of solar zenith angles. Good agreement is found between ozone concentrations from OSO-8 and Nimbus 4 in the region of near overlap, 0.7 mb (52 km). Data indicate that the diurnal variation in ozone below 55 km is less than 20 percent in agreement with current models. The equatorial ozone profile can be described frequently by a single scale height from 34 to 60 km.