The GOZCARDS Source Data for Ozone Monthly Zonal Averages on a Geodetic Latitude and Pressure Grid product (GozSmlpO3) contains zonal means and related information (standard deviation, minimum/maximum value, etc.), calculated from original (‘Level 2’ type) satellite instruments and products. The source O3 data are from the following satellite instruments: SAGE I (v5.9_rev; 1979-1981), SAGE II (v6.2; 1984-2005), HALOE (v19; 1991-2005), UARS MLS (v5; 1991-1997), ACE-FTS (v2.2; 2004-onward), Aura MLS (v2.2; 2004 onward) + others as validation (e.g., SAGE III, v4.0; 2002-2005). The vertical pressure range for O3 is from 147 to 0.5 hPa. The source data are used to create a merged product contained in a separate data product with the short name GozMmlpO3.

The GozSmlpO3 source data are written using the new netCDF4 enhanced model using CF-1 metadata attributes. The data variables are organized into a Group hierarchy structure. Global Attributes describing the data file (e.g. data start/end time, spatial extent, etc.) are located at the file/root level. Users can use netCDF enabled tools to view the data. Since netCDF4 is based on the HDF5 format, HDF5 readers will also work with these data files.

Parameters contained in the data files include the following:
Variable Name    |Description                                  |Units
/SAGE-I/average  |Ozone Zonal Average from SAGE-I              |(mol/mol)
/SAGE-II/average |Ozone Zonal Average from SAGE-II             |(mol/mol)
/HALOE/average   |Ozone Zonal Average from HALOE               |(mol/mol)
/UARS MLS/average|Ozone Zonal Average from UARS MLS            |(mol/mol)
/ACE-FTS/average |Ozone Zonal Average from ACE-FTS             |(mol/mol)
/Aura MLS/average|Ozone Zonal Average from Aura MLS            |(mol/mol)
End of parameter informationGOZCARDS (Global OZone Chemistry And Related trace gas Data records for the Stratosphere) refers to a commonly-formatted Earth system data record (ESDR) for stratospheric composition, of high relevance to the issue of ozone decline and recovery. High-quality long-term ozone and related trace gas data records are needed to (a) evaluate and understand composition changes in the atmosphere and (b) constrain model representations of atmospheric dynamics and photochemistry.