GloSSAC: A 45-Year Stratospheric Aerosol Climatology

GloSSAC Version 2.23 provides a 45-year global, gap-free record of stratospheric aerosol properties, primarily extinction coefficients at 525 and 1020 nm. This climatology synthesizes measurements from the SAGE instrument series, OSIRIS, CALIPSO, and other space-based, ground-based, air, and balloon-borne instruments to fill data gaps. The dataset is a foundational resource for studying long-term atmospheric changes and aerosol impacts on climate.

Use Cases

• Modeling stratospheric aerosol radiative forcing based on extinction coefficient measurements.
• Analyzing long-term trends in stratospheric aerosol loading from a 45-year time series.
• Studying the global spatial distribution of aerosols from satellite and ground-based instrument fusion.
• Investigating the climatic impact of major volcanic eruptions using gap-free aerosol data.

Strengths

• Covers a 45-year time span, providing a long-term climatological baseline.
• Integrates data from multiple satellite and in-situ instruments to create a global, gap-free record.
• Managed by NASA, indicating authoritative data collection and curation.

Limitations

• Sources conflict on the dataset's temporal span (45 years vs. 42 years).
• Key metadata such as specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without details.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Synthesized from space-based instruments (SAGE series, OSIRIS, CALIPSO) and ground-based, air, and balloon-borne instruments.

Time Range

45 years (specific start and end years not provided)

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-04-10 according to datagov, though this future date may be an error; nasa_earthdata lists 2020-12-31.

Geography

Global