Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

Science Rendezvous > 2009 Posters
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Development of a UAS Ozone Instrument: From Ozone Classic to Ozone Lite

Joshua Ballard, Ru-Shan Gao, Laurel Watts, Tommy Thompson, Rich McLaughlin, Dave Fahey National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth Systems Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO

A new in-situ ozone measurement instrument (Ozone Lite) was developed for use aboard Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) such as the Global Hawk, upon which it will be integrated as a part of an Aura validation payload. It is also expected to replace the well-used NOAA ozone instrument (Ozone Classic) developed over 20 years ago by Proffitt et al. Since Ozone Classic is considered the standard for high resolution, autonomous, in situ measurements, it was used as a benchmark for analyzing the performance of Ozone Lite. Both instruments took two flights aboard the WB-57 out of Houston in August, 2007 for technical comparison purposes. Follow-up laboratory experiments illuminated two mechanisms behind in-situ disagreements. First, artifacts resulting from air-flow patterns within Ozone Lite were identified and eliminated. Second, artifacts due to contaminants in the scrubber (most likely water) were identified in both instruments, and were greatly reduced or eliminated in Ozone Lite.