OMPS-N21: Stratospheric Aerosol Extinction Profiles from Limb Sounding
Updated 2mo ago
8filesBIN
Available on 2 platforms
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Description
OMPS-N21's Limb-Profiler sensor provides daily global vertical profiles of stratospheric aerosol extinction at six specific wavelengths (510, 600, 675, 745, 869, and 997 nm). Each day's data comprises approximately 14.5 orbits, with three limb profiles per orbit spaced about 250 km apart, measuring from the ground up to 80 km altitude. This multi-wavelength product replaces the older single-wavelength AER675 dataset, offering enhanced capability for tracking aerosol abundance and evolution in the stratosphere and mesosphere.
Use Cases
Tracking volcanic aerosol plume dispersion and decay based on multi-wavelength extinction profiles.
Studying stratospheric aerosol layer evolution and its climate impact using vertical profiles up to 80 km.
Validating and improving global aerosol models with daily, near-global (-90 to 90° latitude) swath data.
Analyzing aerosol optical properties and particle size information from the six-wavelength extinction measurements.
Strengths
Provides data at six distinct wavelengths (510, 600, 675, 745, 869, 997 nm), enabling more detailed aerosol characterization than the previous single-wavelength product.
Offers high vertical resolution of approximately 1.8 km for profiles spanning from the ground to about 80 km altitude.
Delivers near-global spatial coverage daily via approximately 14.5 orbits, with three profiles per orbit for cross-track sampling.
Limitations
Metadata completeness is inconsistent across platforms; column names, row counts, and file sizes are universally listed as unknown or 'None'.
Data is confined to the daylight portion of each orbit, limiting observations in polar night regions.
The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' or 'None', requiring further investigation for specific use terms.
Provenance
Source
GES_DISC (NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center)
Collection Method
Retrieved from the Ozone Mapping and Profiling Suite (OMPS) Limb-Profiler (LP) sensor on the NOAA-21 satellite.
Time Range
Daily swath data.
Freshness
2026-04-09 23:27:35.175372
Geography
Global coverage from -90 to 90 degrees latitude.
Data files are in HDF5 format. The listed future update date (2026) suggests the metadata may be provisional or incorrectly entered.