Michael S. Cisewski

SAGE III measurements

SAGE III is a NASA EOS instrument designed to provide long term measurements of ozone, aerosol, water vapor, and other gases in the atmosphere. The instrument was launched on a Russian Spacecraft Meteor 3M on December 10, 2001. This paper will provide a brief discussion of the SAGE III data that will be made available to the science community to perform study on problem related to global climate change issues. The SAGE III measurement strategy, data retreival technique, and the expected quality of the data products will be discussed. Preliminary data obtained from the instrument will be presented.

The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE III) on the International Space Station (ISS) Mission

The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III on the International Space Station (SAGE III/ISS) mission will provide the science community with high-vertical resolution and nearly global observations of ozone, aerosols, water vapor, nitrogen dioxide, and other trace gas species in the stratosphere and upper-troposphere. SAGE III/ISS measurements will extend the long-term Stratospheric Aerosol Measurement (SAM) and SAGE data record begun in the 1970s. The multi-decadal SAGE ozone and aerosol data sets have undergone intense scrutiny and are considered the international standard for accuracy and stability. SAGE data have been used to monitor the effectiveness of the Montreal Protocol. Key objectives of the mission are to assess the state of the recovery in the distribution of ozone, to re-establish the aerosol measurements needed by both climate and ozone models, and to gain further insight into key processes contributing to ozone and aerosol variability. The space station mid-inclination orbit allows for a large range in latitude sampling and nearly continuous communications with payloads. The SAGE III instrument is the fifth in a series of instruments developed for monitoring atmospheric constituents with high vertical resolution. The SAGE III instrument is a moderate resolution spectrometer covering wavelengths from 290 nm to 1550 nm. Science data is collected in solar occultation mode, lunar occultation mode, and limb scatter measurement mode. A SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle will provide access to space. Mounted in the unpressurized section of the Dragon trunk, SAGE III will be robotically removed from the Dragon and installed on the space station. SAGE III/ISS will be mounted to the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier-4 (ELC-4) location on the starboard side of the station. To facilitate a nadir view from this location, a Nadir Viewing Platform (NVP) payload was developed which mounts between the carrier and the SAGE III Instrument Payload (IP).

On the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III on the International Space Station

The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III on International Space Station (SAGE3/ISS) is anticipated to be delivered to Cape Canaveral in the spring of 2015. This is the fourth generation, fifth instrument, of visible/near-IR solar occultation instruments operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) to investigate the Earths upper atmosphere. The instrument is a moderate resolution spectrometer covering wavelengths from 290 nm to 1550 nm. The nominal science products include vertical profiles of trace gases, such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide and water vapor, along with multi-wavelength aerosol extinction. The SAGE3/ISS validation program will be based upon internal consistency of the measurements, detailed analysis of the retrieval algorithm, and comparisons with independent correlative measurements. The Instrument Payload (IP), mission architecture, and major challenges are also discussed.

Remote sensing experiment implementation: lessons learned

Lessons learned from the implementation, operation, and science processing from a number of successful NASA LaRC remote sensing experiments will be presented. Despite good flight heritage, well-known designs, and known data retrieval algorithms these experiments remain challenging. The authors will summarize common lessons learned from different project phases and discuss these lessons in the context of planned and future missions with emphasis on improving Level 1 data quality.

Initial Operation and Checkout of Stratospheric Aerosol Gas Experiment and Meteor-3M Satellite

Under a joint agreement between the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (RASA), the Stratospheric Aerosol Gas Experiment III (SAGE III) instrument was launched in low earth orbit on December 10, 2001 aboard the Russian Meteor-3M(1) satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. SAGE III is a spectrometer that measures attenuated radiation in the 282 nm to 1550 nm wavelength range to obtain the vertical profiles of ozone, aerosols, and other chemical species that are critical in studying the trends for the global climate change phenomena. This instrument version is more advanced than any of the previous versions and has more spectral bands, elaborate data gathering and storage, and intelligent terrestrial software. There are a number of Russian scientific instruments aboard the Meteor satellite in addition to the SAGE III instrument. These instruments deal with land imaging and biomass changes, hydro-meteorological monitoring, and helio-geophysical research. This mission was under development for over a period of six years and offered a number of unique technical and program management challenges for both Agencies. SAGE III has a long space heritage, and four earlier versions of this instrument have flown in space for nearly two decades now. In fact, SAGE II, the fourth instrument, is still flying in space on NASAs Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS), and has been providing important atmospheric data over the last 18 years. It has provided vital ozone and aerosol data in the mid latitudes and has contributed vastly in ozone depletion research. Ball Aerospace built the instrument under Langley Research Centers (LaRC) management. This paper presents the process and approach deployed by the SAGE III and the Meteor teams in performing the initial on-orbit checkout. It further documents a number of early science results obtained by deploying low risk, carefully coordinated procedures in resolving the serious operational issues of this satellite.

First-year measurements of stratospheric aerosol and gas experiment III/meteor

The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III/Meteor Instrument was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on December 10, 2001. After initial commissioning phase activities, it began routine solar occultation measurements by March 2002. During the first year of operation, additional measurement capabilities such as lunar occultation and limb scattering were successfully implemented with the SAGE III instrument. This paper will present a summary of the various data sets gathered from the SAGE III instrument during the first year of operation. Measurements of ozone, aerosol, and nitrogen dioxide from solar occultation, lunar occultation, and limb scattering techniques will be presented and discussed.

SAGE III meteor mission: pre-launch preparation, post-launch operation, and initial on-orbit data

The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III (SAGE III) Meteor mission was originally scheduled for launch in the early summer of 2001. This paper will discuss the overall SAGE III/Meteor mission and provide a description of the instrument performance based on different pre-launch tests that have been performed over the last two years. Pre- launch tests include instrument radiometric throughput and calibration; wavelength calibration; polarization response; and in-atmospheric testing including sun and moon viewing. The resulting data demonstrate the capability of the instrument to provide high spectral resolution atmospheric spectral measurement in the visible to the near IR wavelength region with a high SNR. The instrument has been integrated onto the Meteor spacecraft at the NIIEM facility in Russia. Since the launch of the Meteor SAGE III has been delayed until the end of 2001, this paper will only provide a description of the planned initial operation of the SAGE III instrument after launch.

Direct solar and lunar viewing ground testing to simulate Earth orbit scenarios with the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III (SAGE III) space instrument

The instrument description and ground test simulations of on- orbit scenarios for the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III (SAGE-III) are presented. SAGE-III is a spectrographic instrument that has been developed in the U.S. and will orbit aboard a Russian Meteor-3M spacecraft beginning Fall of 1999. It will orbit at a nominal altitude of 1020 km and inclination of 99.6 degrees for global coverage. The instrument will measure the attenuated solar and lunar radiation from 290 nm to 1550 nm wavelength range through the stratosphere. The radiant data are normalized to the non- attenuated radiation measured above the atmosphere during each occultation event. The data are used to calculate the vertical distribution of stratospheric aerosols, ozone and other species that are critical in studying trends and global change. After on-orbit operations being, the autonomy of the instrument will not need up-link commands to acquire science data or to transmit the data back to the United States and Russia.

Meteor 3M / SAGE III mission operations

An overview of joint Russian-American mission operations for the Meteor-3M/SAGE III mission is presented. The Russian Space Agency is responsible for the operation and sustaining engineering of the Meteor-3M spacecraft. The SAGE III mission operations center located at the NASA Langley Research Center is responsible for instrument operation, sustaining engineering, Level 0 data processing, and orbit determination. SAGE III science data is received at ground stations located at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility and in Russia using redundant, twice daily, data playbacks. The highly autonomous mission design requires a high degree of payload autonomy. A combination of navigation data provided by the spacecrafts GPS/GLONASS receiver and novel on-board event scheduling software is used to schedule routine occultation measurements without the need for ground commanding.