Description

POAM2_VER6 data are Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement II Version 6.0 data. The Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement (POAM) II instrument measures the vertical distribution of atmospheric ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and aerosol extinction. The instrument was developed by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL).POAM II measures solar extinction in nine narrow band channels, covering the spectral range from approximately 350 to 1060 nm. Solar extinction by the atmosphere is measured using the solar occultation technique; the sun is observed through the Earth's atmosphere as it rises and sets as viewed from the satellite.POAM II was launched aboard the French SPOT-3 satellite on 26 September, 1993 into a Sun synchronous polar orbit. As seen from the satellite, the Sun rises in the north polar region and sets in the south polar region 14.2 times per day. Sunrise measurements are made in a latitude band from 55-71 degrees north while sunsets occur between 63-88 degrees south. The POAM II mission was interrupted by the failure of the SPOT-3 satellite in November of 1996.Each data granule contains one month of data for a particular hemisphere, taken at approximately 101 minute intervals. The latitudinal extent of data for the northern hemisphere is 54.68 to 71.01 and -62.55 to -88.11 for the southern hemisphere. The longitude ranges from 0 to 360. Several images in 'gif' format are also available. The images represent daily average ozone (altitude .vs. time) for the northern and southern hemispheres, daily average aerosol extinction for the southern hemisphere and latitudinal limits of data samples are also provided. The data consists of profiles of ozone and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentration and aerosol extinction at 1.06um.

Resources and Documentation

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Earthdata Forum

PROFESSIONAL HOME PAGE

NRL Overview of the Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement (POAM) Project

VIEW RELATED INFORMATION

GENERAL DOCUMENTATION

• ASDC Data and Information for POAM
• POAM II - Version 6 Data Description

SCIENCE DATA PRODUCT SOFTWARE DOCUMENTATION

• IDL Procedure to open and read POAM2 Version HDF Data Files

Keywords

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