Version 8.0 SBUV Profile Data on DVD

Introduction

This DVD contains a complete time series record of atmospheric ozone profiles from November 1978 to December 2003 derived from satellite Solar Backscattered Ultraviolet (SBUV) measurements. Data from the SBUV instrument on the Nimbus-7 satellite and the SBUV/2 instruments on NOAA-11, NOAA-16 and NOAA-9 satellites are selected to give a complete time series using the highest quality data available. As discussed in Section 2 below, the overall data quality varies with instrument and time. In particular, data from the N9 SBUV/2 instrument are considered to be of generally inferior quality, and are included only to complete gaps in time not covered by the other instruments. The noaa9_post92 directory contains data covering the period when there is no NOAA-11 data. The noaa9_pre89 directory contains data covering the Nimbus-7 out-of-synchronization period. Some overlap of instrument measurements is provided. See Section 2 for guidelines to select the best quality data and some discussion of instrument problems that affect data quality. Links to the latest information on the DVD can be found at:
  • NOAA SBUV/2 V8 DVD Link

    • Description of DVD Data

    In each instrument directory, there are daily files in ASCII format. A sample ASCII file shows the beginning of a daily file with 8 lines of header and subsequent first 3 data records. As briefly described in the header, each data record starts with 11 parameters relative to the profile, then 13 layers of ozone in Dobson Units and finally 15 level of ozone in PPMV units. A brief description of the first eleven parameters is as follows:
    • Year : The four digit Common Era year
    • Day_of_Year : The day of the year with January 1st equal to 1
    • GMT_seconds : The Greenwich Mean Time at the start of the measurement
    • Latitude : The Latitude (Degrees North) of the measurement
    • Longitude : The Longitude (Degrees East) of the measurement
    • Solar_Zenith : The Solar Zenith Angle (Degrees) of the measurment
    • Total_Ozone : The total column ozone in Dobson Units from the ground up
    • Reflectivity : Effective reflectivity from the ground and /or clouds.
    • Aerosol_Index : Significant quantities indicate the presence of aerosols.
    • Quality_Residue : Average of the absolute final residues (See Section 2).
    • Error_Flag : Three digit error code (See Section 2).
    Note: a daily file may contain part of an orbit of data from the following day, and some of the data for the start of a day may only appear in the preceding day's file.

    Data & Cover Image Interface pops up a retrieval table to get the V8 SBUV & SBUV/2 data and cover images.

    1. V8 Algorithm Description

    2. V8 Data Quality

    3. V8 Validation Results

    Acknowledgments

    The reprocessed SBUV/2 data were made available with support from the NOAA Climate and Global Change Program, Atmospheric Chemistry Element and the NOAA National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Services, Product Systems Development and Implementation Program. Support for SSAI contributors was provided under NASA contract NAS5-00220 and NAS5-01008.

    Last Updated: 2004-04-14 (REVISED L. Flynn 2004-04-12)
    Web Curator: Changwoo Ahn (SSAI), ahn@chescat.gsfc.nasa.gov

    Responsible NASA organization/official: Dr. Richard D. McPeters, Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Branch (Code 916 Homepage)