SAGE III/ISS: Solar Occultation Transmission Profiles

SAGE III/ISS Level 1B Solar Event Transmission Data contains pixel group transmission profiles for individual solar occultation events. The instrument, launched on February 19, 2017 and mounted on the International Space Station, provides long-term monitoring of ozone, aerosols, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen trioxide, and water vapor in the stratosphere and mesosphere. This data has historically informed World Meteorological Organization assessments of ozone depletion.

Use Cases

• Monitoring ozone vertical profiles based on solar occultation transmission data.
• Studying long-term variability of stratospheric aerosols from occultation measurements.
• Analyzing trends in nitrogen dioxide and water vapor concentrations in the upper atmosphere.
• Validating atmospheric models using high-vertical-resolution transmission profiles from the ISS.

Strengths

• Data collection is ongoing, providing a continuous record since the instrument's launch in 2017.
• The dataset is used by the World Meteorological Organization for authoritative ozone depletion assessments.
• Version 6.0 includes improvements such as filling transmission gaps, leading to several hundred more events.

Limitations

• Specific quality issues are noted for events 2024030913SS, 2024030915SS, and 2024030917SS due to line-of-sight blockage.
• Column names and dataset size (rows, file size) are not provided in the available metadata.
• The last update date conflicts between sources (2026-04-09 on datagov vs. 2024-11-30 on nasa_earthdata).

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Collected via the SAGE III instrument using solar occultation from the International Space Station.

Time Range

2017-02-19 (launch) to present (ongoing collection)

Freshness

2026-04-09 22:46:45.766157

Geography

Global, with profiles taken at the Earth's limb as viewed from the ISS.