Comparisons of global ozone trends inferred from the BUV experiment on Nimbus 4 and the ground-based network

Preliminary comparisons between global ozone burdens derived from the backscattered ultraviolet (BUV) experiment on Nimbus 4 and those inferred from an analysis of ground-based network data seem to indicate significant differences in the inter-annual variability of ozone. Some of the observed differences may be due to improper weighting of the ground-based network data, slowly changing planetary wave structure over the fixed station, of small inter-annual changes in meridional transport parameters. There is also some evidence which indicates that the polar stratosphere at high latitudes may represent an important ozone storage resevoir which tends to compensate for large scale changes observed in the regions outside of the polar stratosphere. Possible consequences of this are that the global trends derived from ground based ozone measurements may not be valid and furthermore that the current satellite techniques by themselves may be sufficient. An ozone monitoring system which includes observations from satellites, ground-based stations, balloons and rockets may be necessary.