New methodology for deriving total ozone and other atmospheric variables from Brewer spectrophotometer direct sun spectra

A new method has been developed for taking high‐quality spectral measurements of ultraviolet radiation with the Brewer spectrophotometer. Spectral measurements of direct solar radiation made routinely with the new method at Toronto between 1996 and 2001 were used to determine total ozone, aerosol optical depth, sulfur dioxide and ozone temperature. Corrections to laboratory‐based ozone absorption coefficients have been derived from the data set of these new measurements as have the temperature dependencies of standard Brewer and Dobson total ozone measurements. It was found that the temperature of atmospheric ozone has little effect on the total ozone derived from the standard algorithm used for the Brewer instrument. The new measurement method and the calibration information required to derive the atmospheric variables from the spectra are described. Results of calibrations carried out at Mauna Loa Observatory in 1997 and 2000 are presented. The records of atmospheric variables measured at Toronto between 1996 and 2001 are given.