OMPS-NPP: Stratospheric Ozone Vertical Profiles from Suomi-NPP Satellite

Orbital data from the Suomi-NPP satellite's Ozone Mapping and Profiling Suite Nadir-Profiler instrument provides daily, global ozone measurements. The V8 algorithm reports ozone mixing ratios at 15 pressure levels between 50 and 0.5 hPa, along with total ozone column, UV aerosol index, and reflectivity data. Each granule covers the daylight portion of an orbit, with a spatial resolution of 250 km x 250 km and a latitude range of -82 to +82 degrees.

Use Cases

• Monitoring stratospheric ozone depletion and recovery based on vertical profile data across 15 pressure levels.
• Analyzing the spatial distribution of total ozone column for climate model validation.
• Investigating aerosol-ozone interactions using the concurrent UV aerosol index measurement.
• Tracking daily, global ozone changes from the consistent orbital swath data of the Suomi-NPP satellite.

Strengths

• Provides vertical ozone profiles at 15 specific pressure levels between 50 and 0.5 hPa, offering structured atmospheric data.
• Offers daily global coverage with about 14.5 orbits per day, enabling consistent temporal monitoring.
• Contains multiple related atmospheric measurements, including total ozone, UV aerosol index, and reflectivities at 331 and 380 nm.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided across any source, hindering precise data assessment.
• The spatial resolution is coarse, with a large footprint size of 250 km x 250 km per profile.
• Data is restricted to daylight portions of orbits and latitudes between -82 and +82 degrees, excluding polar night and high polar regions.

Provenance

Source

GES_DISC (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing from the OMPS Nadir-Profiler instrument on the Suomi-NPP platform.

Time Range

Daily orbital data; specific start/end dates are not provided.

Freshness

2026-04-09 23:16:08.366701

Geography

Global, -82 to +82 degrees latitude.