Abstract

The Stratospheric Aerosol Measurement (SAM) II sensor (McCormick et al., 1979), launched aboard the Nimbus 7 satellite in October 1978, is a single channel (1.0 micron) sun photometer which measures 1-km vertical resolution profiles of aerosol extinction by the solar occulation technique. Approximately 14 profiles (separated by ≈ 26° in longitude) are measured daily in each hemisphere. Due to the orbital characteristics of the Nimbus 7 satellite, the latitude of SAM II measurements varies from approximately 64° (N or S) at the solstices to approximately 80° (N or S) at the equinoxes.

© 1990 Optical Society of America