Application of OMI ozone profiles in CMAQ

Using OMI ozone profiles as the boundary conditions for CMAQ calculations significantly improves the agreement of the model with ozonesonde observations during IONS06. This improvement results from both representing the free-tropospheric ozone amounts more accurately and also from representing recirculating air masses more accurately. A simultaneous assessment of the OMI ozone profiles directly with the sondes indicates agreement to better than 10% throughout the free troposphere with 10-20% differences in the PBL.