Ozone assimilation and its impact on the Environment Canada UV index forecasts

The operational UV index forecasts being provided by Environment Canada (EC) rely on total column ozone maps empirically estimated from meteorological variables followed by scaling with ground-based total column ozone measurements from a few Brewer stations in Canada. In parallel, stratospheric ozone assimilation has been conducted in research mode at Environment Canada for over ten years. A new project has been undertaken to produce UV index forecasts using ozone analyses and resulting model ozone forecasts. The ozone model consists of the LINOZ linearized ozone chemistry scheme. The assimilated ozone data includes GOME2 and SBUV-2 data. The resulting total column ozone and UV index forecasts will be compared to ground-based and satellite measurements and to output of the EC and NOAA operational products.