The SAGE-II V6.1 ozone retrievals are shown to be of better precision at all levels and to be much more accurate than previous retrievals in the lower stratosphere below 20 km altitude. A filtering procedure for removing anomalous ozone profiles associated with volcanic aerosol/cloud effects and other identified artifacts in V6.1 ozone is described. The agreement between SAGE and ozonesondes in the mean is shown to be approximately 10% down to the tropopause. Relative to the sondes SAGE tends to slightly overestimate ozone (less than 5%) between 15 and 20 km altitude, and systematically underestimates ozone in the troposphere by approximately 30% in the regions between 8 km altitude and 2 km below the tropopause. The precisions (random errors) of SAGE ozone retrievals above 25 km altitude are estimated to be 4% or better; they are a factor of ten worse below 16 km altitude. Linear trends in the differences between coincident SAGE and ozonesondes measurement are generally less than 0.3 %/year and not significantly different from zero in 95% confidence intervals. Compared to V5.96 retrievals, ozone trend differences between 20 and 50 km altitude are approximately 0. 1 %/year, below 20 km altitude the SAGE II trends are more positive by approximately 0.2 %/year. For the 1984-1999 period the SAGE-II shows a localized ozone loss of -0.4(+/- 0.25) %/year (2gigma) in the tropics at 20 km altitude. In the lower stratosphere between 16 and 22 km altitudes, the SAGE shows significant ozone losses in the mid-latitudes in both Hemispheres during the 1979-1999 periods. The ozone trends range from -0.24(+/- 0.18) to -0.77(+/- 0.46) (2sigma)%/year. However in the 1984-1999 period, the downward trends are smaller (-0.07 to - 0.25 %/year) in this altitude range, and the trends in the integrated column from 12 to 17 km altitude in mid-latitudes (35 deg - 60 deg) are not significantly different from zero (0.1 +?- 0.6 (2sigma)%/year). Averaged over the tropics (20 deg S to 20 deg N) the ozone column above 15 km altitude exhibit a trend of -0.12 +/- 0.08 (2sigma)%/year.
