Ozone and Satellite Mapping
Ozone is a naturally occurring form of oxygen found high in the Earth’s atmosphere. It acts as a protective shield to life on Earth by absorbing most of the sun’s cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation. The last satellite to carry a TOMS instrument, the Russian Meteor-3 satellite, completed its mission in December 2004. It also too some images showing satellite maps of all areas.
TRW Space & Electronics Group built the 650-pound (295 kilograms) satellite and integrated the TOMS instrument, built by Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Va., for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The high resolution TOMS instrument will measure total columnar ozone, the amount of ozone found in a column of air extending from the Earth’s surface to the top of the atmosphere.
It measures total ozone by observing both incoming solar energy and backscattered ultraviolet radiation at six wavelengths. Backscattered radiation is solar radiation that has penetrated the Earth’s lower atmosphere and been reflected by air molecules and clouds back through the stratosphere to the satellite sensors.