SAGE II
type: Concept
in scheme: projects
definition: Scientific Objectives: Since October 1984, the SAGE II instrument has been flying aboard the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) collecting data that are being processed and archived at NASA LaRC to produce four Level 2 data products: aerosol extinction profiles at 1020, 525, 453, and 385 nanometers, and ozone, water vapor, and nitrogen dioxide mixing ratio profiles. These products are nearly global in coverage, with data spanning from 80 degrees North to 80 degrees South latitudes. The accuracy of these data was verified by extensive validation efforts and the data sets are now archived and available for general scientific use. These data may be of use to investigators who are interested in spatial and temporal variations of ozone, aerosols, water vapor, and nitrogen dioxide caused by seasonal and short-term meteorological variations, atmospheric chemistry and microphysics, and transient phenomena, such as volcanic eruptions. These data may also be of some benefit for those who perform upper tropospheric studies of aerosols or who perform climatology studies of cirrus clouds. SAM II, SAGE I, and SAGE II have provided data sets that are now available for use and provide a span of aerosol data from late 1978 up through the present time. Project Description: The SAGE II instrument is a seven-channel Sun photometer using a Cassegrainian-configured telescope, holographic grating, and seven silicon photodiodes, some with interference filters, to define the seven spectral channel bandpasses. Solar radiation is reflected off a pitch mirror into the telescope with an image of the Sun formed at the focal plane. The instrument's instantaneous field-of-view, defined by an aperture in the focal plane, is a 1/2 X 2-1/2 arc-minute slit that produces a vertical resolution at the tangent point on the earth's horizon of about 0.5 kilometers. Radiation passing through the aperture is transferred to the spectrometer section of the instrument containing the holographic grating and …

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type: Concept