Retrieval of mesospheric ozone from groundbased millimeter wave observations

Mesospheric ozone and its variability can be remotely sensed by ground based millimeter wave radiometry. Altitude profiles of ozone can be retrieved from the measured spectral lineshapes due to the altitude dependent pressure broadening of the line. However with increasing altitude in the mesosphere the contribution of the Doppler broadening of the millimeter wave emission of ozone starts to dominate and exceeds the pressure broadening in the upper mesosphere. As a result the retrieval becomes more and more noise sensitive. This problem is discussed in detail and an error analysis of the retrieval using the optimal estimation method is presented