Satellite observation and mapping of wintertime ozone variability in the lower stratosphere

Comparison is made between 30 mbar ozone fields that are generated by a transport-chemistry model utilizing the winds from the Goddard Space Flight Center stratospheric data assimilation system (STRATAN), observations from the LIMS instrument on Nimbus 7, and the ozone fields that result from 'flying' a mathematical simulation of LIMS observations through the transport-chemistry model ozone fields. The modeled ozone fields are found to resemble the LIMS observations, but the model fields show much more temporal and spatial structure than do the LIMS observations. The 'satellite-mapped' model results resemble the LIMS observations much more closely. These results are very consistent with the earlier discussions of satellite space-time sampling by Salby.