| dc.description.abstract | Although ozone is rare in several vital roles which the atmosphere, it has depend on vertical distribution of the gas. Consequently, the major
objectives of this study were to determine the vertical
distribution and dynamics of ozone. An attempt was also
made to determine the influence of meteorological
parameters on the vertical profile of ozone.
Measurements of the primary data that were used to
compute the vertical profiles of ozone were obtained by
the use of Dobson ozone spectrophotometer No. 18. The
instrument is stationed at Chiromo campus , University
of Nairobi (1° S, 36° E) at an altitude of 1710 m above
sea level. The data were collected for six months
(November 1995-April 1996) that represented a hot and a
cold season.
The primary data were subjected to the new Umkehr
inversion algorithm to yield the vertical profiles of
ozone. To investigate the general vertical distribution
of ozone, arithmetic average of ozone quantity in each
layer over the entire duration of the study was
computed.
An investigation of the dynamics of ozone was
realized by studying the monthly variation of ozone in
each layer. This investigation was further enhanced by
analyzing the ozone standard deviations. The degree of
relationship between ozone profiles and some
meteorological parameters that included long-term mean
tropopause height, tropopause temperature, temperature
wind speed wind direction at various levels was carried
out.
Subjection of raw data to the new Umkehr inversion
algorithm yielded 34
Umkehr observations.
ozone profiles out of 65 days of
The average vertical profile of
ozone indicated low and high ozone concentration in the
troposphere and stratosphere respectively. About 10.4%
of ozone was located below 12.5 km whereas the
remaining amount (89.6%) was above this level.
Analysis of ozone variability in each layer showed
three distinct patterns. These patterns were associated
with the three vertical cells (Lower, middle and upper
cells) .
Highest negative spearman rank correlation
coefficients between ozone amount and tropopause height
were obtained in layers 4 and 5. Ozone correlation with
tropopause temperature indicated high coefficients in
layers 3, 4, and 5 relative to other layers.
Relationship between temperature and ozone in layers 1-
2 and layers 3-5 depicted positive and negative
correlations respectively. Correlation between zonal
wind speed and ozone quantity in layers 1-5 indicated
variability which was associated with varying wind
directions. | en |
