Application of TOMS data to weather analysis models

Recent studies of the errors of analysis reflected by numerical weather analysis models are reviewed. Despite the improvements in data coverage and data ingestion methods in the past decade, it is found that significant errors of analysis persist. A case study comparison of Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) data and aircraft data with the NMC analysis over the North Atlantic is used to illustrate the size of local errors encountered. The possibility of using TOMS images to locate meteorologically significant features such as troughs and ridges near the tropopause is discussed.