OMPS-NPP: Stratospheric Aerosol Extinction Profiles

OMPS-NPP L3 LP Aerosol Extinction Vertical Profile monthly data provides retrieved aerosol extinction coefficients from the OMPS Limb-Profiler sensor on the Suomi-NPP satellite. It measures stratospheric aerosol abundance and evolution at six specific wavelengths from 510 to 997 nm. Data is averaged monthly on a global 5x15 degree latitude-longitude grid, with vertical profiles from the ground up to about 41 km at a 1.0 km resolution.

Use Cases

• Tracking stratospheric aerosol evolution after volcanic eruptions based on multi-wavelength extinction profiles.
• Studying global aerosol distribution and transport using monthly averaged 5x15 degree gridded data.
• Complementing ozone profile measurements from the same OMPS Limb-Profiler sensor for integrated atmospheric studies.
• Validating climate and atmospheric chemistry models with vertically resolved aerosol extinction coefficients.

Strengths

• Provides data at six specific wavelengths (510, 600, 675, 745, 869, 997 nm) for detailed spectral analysis.
• Offers global spatial coverage from -90 to 90 degrees latitude.
• Delivers vertical profiles with a reported resolution of 1.0 km from the ground up to about 41 km.

Limitations

• Column names and a complete data schema are not provided in any source, limiting understanding of the data structure.
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and author are consistently missing or listed as unknown/None across all platforms.
• The dataset description is repeated verbatim across platforms, suggesting potential metadata stagnation.

Provenance

Source

GES_DISC

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing from the Ozone Mapping and Profiling Suite (OMPS) Limb-Profiler sensor on the Suomi-NPP satellite.

Freshness

2026-04-09 23:26:51.588380

Geography

Global (-90 to 90 degrees latitude)