Following the successful launch of the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) aboard the Suomi National Polarorbiting Partnership (NPP) spacecraft, the NASA OMPS Limb team began an evaluation of sensor and data product performance in relation to the original goals for this instrument. Does the sensor design work as well as expected, and can limb scatter measurements by NPP OMPS and successor instruments form the basis for accurate long-term monitoring of ozone vertical profiles? While this paper does not address the latter question, the answer to the former is a qualified Yes given this early stage of the mission.
The OMPS Limb Profiler (LP) was launched on board the NASA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite in October 2011. OMPS-LP is a limb-scattering hyperspectral sensor that provides ozone profiling capability at 1.5 km vertical resolution from cloud top to 60 km altitude. The use of three parallel slits allows global coverage in approximately four days. We have recently completed a full reprocessing of all LP data products, designated as Release 2, that improves the accuracy and quality of these products. Level 1 gridded radiance (L1G) changes include intra-orbit and seasonal correction of variations in wavelength registration, revised static and intra-orbit tangent height adjustments, and simplified pixel selection from multiple images. Ozone profile retrieval changes include removal of the explicit aerosol correction, exclusion of channels contaminated by stratospheric OH emission, a revised instrument noise characterization, improved synthetic solar spectrum, improved pressure and temperature ancillary data, and a revised ozone climatology. Release 2 data products also include aerosol extinction coefficient profiles derived with the prelaunch retrieval algorithm. Our evaluation of OMPS LP Release 2 data quality is good. Zonal average ozone profile comparisons with Aura MLS data typically show good agreement, within 5-10% over the altitude range 20-50 km between 60°S and 60°N. The aerosol profiles agree well with concurrent satellite measurements such as CALIPSO and OSIRIS, and clearly detect exceptional events such as volcanic eruptions and the Chelyabinsk bolide in February 2013.
NASA's ACCESS Program is sponsoring an evolution of a mission-based ozone data processing system into a measurement-based Atmospheric Composition Processing System (ACPS). Services currently available only to mission science team members will be extended to members of the Atmospheric Composition Community. Data and information technologies developed for the BUV, TOMS, OMI, and OMPS science teams will be made available to a wider base of science users. Community scientists will have access to current processing algorithms and resources. They will be able to run modified forms of existing algorithms or develop and run new algorithms on the ACPS. Development costs will be minimized by utilizing elements of existing and proven systems. Implementation costs for external scientists will also be minimized by utilizing Linux-based commodity processors, open standards, and open source software. This presentation introduces the architecture of the ACPS and describes how external scientists will be able to interact with it.
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