Ozone trend estimation using MIPAS ESA Level 2 Version 7 data

The largest part of the Earth's atmosphere ozone is located in the stratosphere, forming the so-called ozone layer. This layer played a key role in the development of life on Earth and still protects the planet from the most Dangerous ultraviolet radiation. After the discovery of the high ozone depletion potential of some anthropogenic origin substances (e.g. chlorofluorocarbons), some limitations in the production of the major ozone-depleting substances (ODS) have been applied with the Montreal Protocol in 1987. The reduction of the ODS concentrations in the stratosphere started in the mid-1990s and, thereafter, the stratospheric ozone layer should have started its recovery. In the attempt to detect this recovery we use the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) measurements to estimate the stratospheric ozone trend in the mission period (July 2002 - April 2012). In particular, we use MIPAS products generated with Version 7 of the Level 2 (L2v7) algorithm operated by the European Space Agency. The L2v7 data are based on the MIPAS Level 1b radiances Version 7. These radiances are calculated with an improved radiometric calibration that exploits a time-dependent non-linearity correction scheme. After this correction the residual drift of the calibration error is smaller than 1% across the entire mission, thus allowing to determine accurate trend estimates.