New ozone observation capability in the Atmospheric Observatory of Austral Patagonia: Millimeter wave radiometer.

P. F. ORTE, J. SALVADOR, E. WOLFRAM, R. D’ELIA, T. NAGAHAMA, Y. KOJIMA, R. TANADA, T. KUWAHARA, A. MORIHIRA, E. QUEL, A. MIZUNO.

Simposio; Quadrennial Ozone Symposium; 2012

Ground-based and satellite observations have shown a dramatic decrease in ozone over Antarctica during Southern Hemisphere spring since about 1980. To contribute with the study of ozone phenomenon carried out in the Atmospheric Observatory of Austral Patagonia (OAPA), LIDAR Division of CEILAP, a new sensitive radiometer for atmospheric minor constituents has been installed, in October 2010. This observatory is established in the city of Río Gallegos, Argentina, in the South Patagonia, a region affected by the spring ozone hole (51º 36’ S, 69º 19’ W). The millimeter wave radiometer was developed in STEL (Solar Terrestrial Environment Laboratory), Nagoya University, Japan. This instrument is based in the spectral signal detection from the atmosphere due to the molecular rotational transition that the molecules being studied. The operation is based in a superheterodyne system which uses a Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) mixer receiver. This passive remote sensing instrument has been designed to measure the ozone amount continuously and automatically in the stratosphere and low mesosphere between 25 and 80 km. In this region, mean ozone lifetime is the order of hours. The radiometer has a typical time resolution of 30 minutes. Therefore, this will permit measure diurnal-nocturnal variation due to photochemical process. The ozone profiles retrieved will be increase the vertical range of the ozone profile observed in this site with the DIAL system. In addition, the observatory has an important instrumental capability able to observe the stratospheric ozone amount like a SAOZ and Brewer spectrometer belonging to France and INPE (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais), Brazil respectively. The aim of this work is to describe the millimeter wave radiometer and to present the instrumental capability installed in this subpolar latitudes.