Launched on October 28, 2011, the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership
(SNPP) is a polar orbiting operational environmental satellite system which
provides measurements of land, oceans, and the atmosphere. SNPP extends and
improves upon the Earth system data records established by previous Earth
Observation Systems (EOS). There are five instruments/sensors on board SNPP
which collect climate data to help predict long term climate change and
operational weather data to predict short term weather conditions. SNPP
provides full global coverage, twice each day with a 4 day revisit cycle.
The Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) is carried on SNPP.
The Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) is a hyperspectral instrument
which consists of three spectrometers designed to measure the concentration
of ozone in the Earth's atmosphere. The three spectrometers which comprise
the OMPS suite are a downward-looking nadir mapper (OMPS-NM), a nadir
profiler (OMPS-NP), and a limb profiler (OMPS-LP). OMPS builds upon the more
than 3 decades of ozone and ozone profile records established by the Solar
Backscatter Ultraviolet Radiometer (SBUV and SBUV/2) and the Total Ozone
Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS). The complete OMPS suite currently flies on
board the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) spacecraft.
Sulfur dioxide (SO2) produced from volcanoes and anthropogenic sources is
also monitored by OMPS. OMPS provides near real-time data to detect,
monitor, and characterize SO2 and ash injected into the atmosphere from
volcanic eruptions. Sulfur dioxide and aerosol data from OMPS is used to
assess the impacts of volcanic eruptions on air traffic control operations
globally.
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