Description
SAGE2 V6.20 AEROSOL O3 NO2 H2O BINARY data set contains aerosol, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and water vapor extinction profiles. The data are available in the SAGE II native binary format.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.The constituent record provided by SAGE II was continued and improved by its successor SAGE III-Meteor-3M, which was successfully launched onboard a Russian spacecraft on December 10, 2001, and will be further extended by SAGE III on ISS which is scheduled for launch in March 2015.