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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