Team SSAI Works to Keep the Ozone Layer Healthy
SSAI researchers and scientists contribute science and engineering expertise to long-term, space-based atmospheric ozone data collection and provide in-depth support for the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) as well as other atmospheric science instruments.
SSAI scientists form an integral part of the development and extension of NASA’s long-term climate data record, which to monitors the ozone layer's health and will continue to do so well into the future.
Overview
In 1975, a congressional mandate directed NASA to "conduct a comprehensive program of research, technology and monitoring of the phenomena of the upper atmosphere." Not only did efforts from this directive produce the first images of the Southern Hemisphere's ozone hole, NASA satellite instruments produced subsequent imagery and results that showed the long-term decrease in global ozone levels. This helped to promote the ratification of the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty to limit and eventually eliminate the release of man-made, ozone-destroying chemicals into the atmosphere.
Ozone research remains a high priority for the scientific community. SSAI scientists an integral to this mission and many have worked alongside with NASA colleagues who specialize in this research for decades.
The Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS)
SSAI team members worked to calibrate measurements from the satellite instruments and monitor their performance, develop algorithms to convert these measurements into total ozone and ozone profile amounts, and create consistent long-term data sets by combining measurements from successive generations of instruments. SSAI continues to provide on-going, in-depth science and engineering support for the OMPS, which is onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Platform (Suomi-NPP) and NOAA 20 satellites. The OMPS was designed to measure Earth’s atmospheric ozone and monitor the ozone layer.
In addition to providing in-depth science team support for the OMPS limb profiler — i.e., algorithm integration, testing, evaluation, assessment, and validation — SSAI also offers data simulation and analysis expertise to assess OMPS system performance with respect to Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) specifications. Furthermore, SSAI developed and enhanced processing code to accommodate instrument on-orbit performance.
Results
SSAI currently works with NASA to use data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) onboard the Aura satellite and the OMPS instruments on both the Suomi-NPP and NOAA 20 satellites to look for signs of recovery in the ozone layer and are busy analyzing pre-launch calibration data taken from OMPS instruments waiting to fly on future NOAA satellite missions. Our staff also analyzes data and produces ozone and aerosol profile products from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III currently operates aboard the International Space Station.
As such, our work forms an integral part of the development and extension of NASA’s long-term climate data record used to monitor the health of the ozone layer and will continue to do so well into the future.
This shows the measurements from Suomi-NPP OMPS in October 2020. The concentration of blue and purple represents the hole in the Ozone.