Abstract. To evaluate the added value brought by the next generation of IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounder Interferometer) instruments to monitor lower tropospheric (LT) ozone, we developed a pseudo-observation simulator, including a direct simulator of thermal infrared spectra and a full inversion scheme to retrieve ozone concentration profiles. We based our simulations on the instrumental configuration of IASI and of an IASI-like instrument, with a factor 2 improvement in terms of spectral resolution and radiometric noise. This scenario, that will be referred to as IASI/2, is one possible configuration of the IASI-NG (New Generation) instrument (the configuration called IASI-NG/IRS2) currently designed by CNES (Centre National d'Études Spatiales). IASI-NG is expected to be launched in the 2020 timeframe as part of the EPS-SG (EUMETSAT Polar System-Second Generation, formerly post-EPS) mission. We produced one month (August 2009) of tropospheric ozone pseudo-observations based on these two instrumental configurations. We compared the pseudo-observations and we found a clear improvement of LT ozone (up to 6 km altitude) pseudo-observations quality for IASI/2. The estimated total error is expected to be more than 35% smaller at 5 km, and 20% smaller for the LT ozone column. The total error on the LT ozone column is, on average, lower than 10% for IASI/2. IASI/2 is expected to have a significantly better vertical sensitivity (monthly average degrees of freedom surface–6 km of 0.70) and to be sensitive at lower altitudes (more than 0.5 km lower than IASI, reaching nearly 3 km). Vertical ozone layers of 4 to 5 km thickness are expected to be resolved by IASI/2, while IASI has a vertical resolution of 6–8 km. According to our analyses, IASI/2 is expected to have the possibility of effectively separate lower from upper tropospheric ozone information even for low sensitivity scenarios. In addition, IASI/2 is expected to be able to better monitor LT ozone patterns at local spatial scale and to monitor abrupt temporal evolutions occurring at timescales of a few days, thus bringing an expected added value with respect to IASI for the monitoring of air quality.