Mesospheric chemistry of vibrationally excited O3 from diurnal microwave measurements of O3(ν1), O3(ν2), O3(ν3), and O3(ground state)

The first simultaneous and independent measurements of lower mesospheric ozone in its ground vibrational and three excited vibrational states [(100), (010), and (001)] are described. Daytime and nighttime data are analyzed separately and compared with photochemical model predicted results. Ratios of measured to model molecular abundances of the vibrationally excited states are temperature dependent. With modest perturbations to the climatological temperatures, measured abundances of the ground and three vibrationally excited states are found to be self‐consistent. They exhibit agreement both among themselves and with a photochemical model. IR ozone sounding (e.g., Limb Infrared Monitor of the Stratosphere, Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry) infers total ozone abundance from measurement of one vibrationally excited state. In contrast, this paper presents the first direct measurements of these ozone vibrational populations, upon which IR O3 sounding has rested.