Status of the Dobson total ozone data set

Abstract

During deliberations of the International Ozone Trends Panel (IOTP) it became obvious that satellite determinations of global ozone amounts by themselves could not provide the necessary confidence in the measured trends. During the time of the deliberations of the IOTP, Bojkov re-examined the records of serveral North American Dobson stations and Degorska re-examined the records of the Belsk station. They were able to improve the quality of the data sets, thus improving the precision of their total ozone data sets. These improvements showed the greater potential of the world-wide Dobson total ozone data set in two primary areas. Firstly, the improvements showed that the existing data set when evaluated will become more valuable for comparisons with satellite determinations of total ozone. Secondly, the Dobson data set covers a greater period of time than the satellite data sets thus offering the possibility of extending improved information on ozone trends further back in time. An International Dobson Workshop was convened in September, 1991, under the auspices of the NOAA Climate and Global Change Program. It was part of the Information Management element of the C&GC Program. Further, it was considered as a 'data archaeology' project under the above. Clearly if the existing Dobson data set can be improved by re-evaluating all data records, we will be able to uncover the 'true' or 'best' data and fulfill the role of archaeologists.