UTLS-Ozone ERA40 Validation: Comparisons of Ozone and Water Vapour values from satellites, aircraft and the ERA-40 model output

Evaluation of the Ozone and Water Vapour Datasets of the 40-Year European Re-analysis of the Global Atmosphere Upper Troposphere Lower Stratosphere (UTLS) Round 2 project led by Prof. A. O Neill, Dr W. Lahoz and Prof. B. Hoskins, Centre for Global Atmospheric Modelling, Department of Meteorology, University of Reading.

Re-analyses datasets, such as the 40-year re-analysis dataset (ERA-40), have been produced by the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts. This has provided an invaluable tool for a wide range of modelling, theoretical and observational studies of the atmosphere, including the UTLS region. This was because they have the advantage of being global, self-consistent and relatively long-term. It was vital that the ERA-40 dataset was carefully evaluated before projects studying the UTLS region, for example, draw conclusions based on its use.

This project undertook an evaluation of the ERA-40 dataset by comparing ozone and water vapour fields (important for climate, radiation and dynamics) in the UTLS region using independent satellite data from the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), aircraft data from the Measurements of Ozone by Airbus In Service Aircraft (MOZAIC) programme, measurements from fields campaigns (e.g. the European Arctic Stratospheric Experiment (EASOE), and the Second European Stratospheric Arctic and Mid-latitude Experiment (SESAME).

The objectives of the UTLS-Ozone ERA40 Validation project were:

To evaluate the ozone and water vapour datasets in ERA-40, including the identification of shortcomings and suggestions for improvements.

To gain intimate knowledge of the data quality and shortcomings of ERA-40 datasets other than ozone and water vapour, via membership of the ERA-40 data evaluation team.

To provide users with quality-controlled, three dimensional ozone and water vapour datasets from the ERA-40 analyses, together with error statistics on the reliability of the fields.

To provide support for measurement campaigns associated with the study of chemistry/ climate interactions.

To provide support to the scientific community in the form of climatologies for studies of atmospheric variability and predictability.

To provide interdisciplinary training in data evaluation and analysis techniques, earth observation sciences and atmospheric modelling.

Date (Publication): 2005-12-10T02:35:10

Date (Creation): 2005-12-10T02:35:10

Citation identifier: https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/b6700d9d2b1896437635dc8d4e13f934

Citation identifier: NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC) / b6700d9d2b1896437635dc8d4e13f934

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)		unknown	Author
NERC UTLS-Ozone ERA-40 validation campaign participants		unknown	Author
Unavailable	O'Neill, Alan	Unavailable	Author
Unavailable	et. al,	Unavailable	Author
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	Custodian
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	Distributor
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	pointofContact
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	Publisher

Maintenance and update frequency: Unknown

Update scope: Series

Keywords

UTLS
ERA40
chemistry
ECMWF

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

atmospheric conditions

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Please contact the data centre for assistance on accessing data from this dataset collection.

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Under the following licence http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/, appropriate use of these data may fall under any use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.

Spatial representation type: Grid

Language: English

Topic category

Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere

Begin date: 1994-07-31T23:00:00

End date: 1999-12-31T00:00:00

Unique resource identifier: WGS 84

Distribution format

Name	Version
Contact data centre for format details.

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/b6700d9d2b1896437635dc8d4e13f934	CEDA Data Catalogue Page

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://data.ceda.ac.uk/badc/utls/doc/era-40_validation/ERA40_O3_and_H2O_Validation_Report.pdf	UTLS-Ozone ERA40 Validation Report

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://artefacts.ceda.ac.uk/badc_datadocs/mls/	MLS data at the BADC

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://artefacts.ceda.ac.uk/badc_datadocs/utls-ozone/utls-protocol.html	UTLS-Ozone Data Protocol

Hierarchy level: Series

Conformance result

Title: Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Statement: Please see data lineage statements for each dataset within this collection for data lineage details.

Metadata

File identifier: b6700d9d2b1896437635dc8d4e13f934 XML

Metadata language: English

Character set: UTF8

Hierarchy level: Series

Hierarchy level name: series

Date stamp: 2026-03-11T03:29:15

Metadata standard name: UK GEMINI

Metadata standard version: 2.3

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre (NCAS BADC)		badc@rl.ac.uk	Point of contact

Overviews

Spatial extent

Provided by

Access to the catalogue

Read here the full details and access to the data.

Simple

Conformance result

Metadata

Overviews

Spatial extent

Keywords

Provided by

Share on social sites