Short Name:
SAGE2_AEROSOL_O3_NO2_H2O_BINARY

Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) II Version 7.0 Aerosol, O3, NO2 and H2O Profiles in binary format

SAGE2 V7.00 AEROSOL O3 NO2 H2O BINARY data set contains aerosol extinction, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and water vapor profiles. The data are available in the SAGE II native binary format. Over the long 21-year mission, the spacecraft experienced episodic anomalies in the power system. These anomalies are usually followed by a period where the occultation events are of limited duration. These so-called short events may have an insufficient number of exoatmospheric scans of the solar disk precluding an accurate determination of the solar limb darkening curve and the scan mirror relative reflectivity. In version 7.0, these events, 4900 in all, are now dropped and the user no longer needs to filter these out. Approximately 150 events that did not complete processing in earlier versions are now being successfully processed. The net result is that there are actually more usable profiles in v7.0 than in previous versions. The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE II) was a payload installed aboard the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) that was launched on October 5, 1984, from NASA Space Shuttle Flight 41-G. The SAGE II instrument was a multi-channel spectral radiometer that measured the attenuation of solar radiation at seven wavelengths as they passed through the Earth's atmosphere during the spacecraft's sunrise and sunset events. In one day’s time, the ERBS spacecraft encountered approximately fifteen sunrise and fifteen sunset events. The SAGE II instrument captured solar radiation data for each event. The data span a vertical distance from about 140 kilometers to the horizon or a cloud top. The ground-track slew distance during data capture varied directly with the duration of the event. Event duration varied with the beta angle of the event - the larger the absolute beta angle, the longer the event. SAGE II continued the SAGE measurements of stratospheric ozone from 1984-2005. After nearly 21 years, the SAGE II Instrument on the ERBS platform was powered off on 22 August, 2005.

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