Construction and Analysis of an Ozone Profile Climatology Over Houston, Texas

Abstract

Since the summer of 2004, over 200 ozonesondes have been launched from the campuses of Rice University or the University of Houston (29.7 N, 95.3 W), each about 3 miles from downtown Houston. These sounding launches have been sponsored by NASA, the Shell Center for Sustainability of Rice University, and the Texas Commissions for Environmental Quality as part of a large effort to understand Houstons ozone problem. Data from these soundings have provided valuable insight into the seasonal and diurnal variations of the vertical ozone distribution and their relationship to changes in atmospheric conditions. In this presentation, we show annual and seasonal variability in the ozone profile, evidence for the impact of meteorological factors on the ozone profile, and comparisons of the ozonesonde data with TES and OMI retrievals.