POAM2_VER6: Polar Atmospheric Profiles from Solar Occultation

POAM II, launched aboard the French SPOT-3 satellite on 26 September 1993, measured vertical profiles of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and aerosol extinction using solar occultation in nine spectral channels. Data was collected approximately every 101 minutes within specific polar latitude bands until the mission ended with the satellite's failure in November 1996. Each data granule contains one month of measurements for a single hemisphere, accompanied by daily average images in GIF format.

Use Cases

• Tracking polar ozone depletion trends based on vertical concentration profiles.
• Studying aerosol transport and extinction in the polar stratosphere using the 1.06 µm channel data.
• Validating atmospheric chemistry models with solar occultation measurements from 350-1060 nm.
• Analyzing latitudinal and seasonal variations in NO2 concentrations within the 55-71°N and 63-88°S bands.

Strengths

• Provides vertical distribution profiles for three key atmospheric constituents (ozone, NO2, aerosols) from a dedicated instrument.
• Data has high temporal resolution, with measurements taken at approximately 101-minute intervals, yielding 14.2 sunrise/sunset events per day.
• Covers a specific, scientifically critical geographic range focused on the polar regions of both hemispheres.

Limitations

• The mission's temporal coverage is limited, ending abruptly in November 1996 due to satellite failure.
• Explicit column names and dataset size/row counts are not provided in the available metadata.
• There is a conflict in the 'last updated' metadata between platforms (1996 vs. 2026), suggesting potential provenance confusion.

Provenance

Source

Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) instrument on the French SPOT-3 satellite, data provided by NASA.

Collection Method

Solar occultation technique measuring atmospheric solar extinction across nine narrow-band channels.

Time Range

1993-09-26 to 1996-11

Freshness

2026-04-09 23:10:58.357267 (from datagov, but conflicts with the 1996 end date from nasa_earthdata)

Geography

Northern Hemisphere: 54.68° to 71.01° latitude. Southern Hemisphere: -62.55° to -88.11° latitude. Longitude: 0° to 360°.