Overview

The Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) is one of five instruments that launched aboard Suomi NPP in 2011. A second OMPS flight unit built by Ball Aerospace will fly on the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1) with its expected launch in 2017.

OMPS measures atmospheric ozone and how ozone concentration varies with altitude. It provides parallel functionality to both the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Radiometer (SBUV/2) and NASA’s Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) with new and improved environmental data records. OMPS collects total column and vertical profile ozone data and continues the daily global data produced by SBUV/2 and TOMS, but with higher fidelity. The collection of this data contributes to fulfilling the U.S. treaty obligation to monitor the ozone depletion for the Montreal Protocol to ensure there are no gaps in ozone coverage.

OMPS is a three-part instrument: a nadir mapper that will map global ozone with about 50-km ground resolution, a nadir profiler that will measure the vertical distribution of ozone in the stratosphere, and a limb profiler that measures ozone in the lower stratosphere and troposphere with high vertical resolution. The limb sensor is not part of the JPSS-1 OMPS flight unit.

Our Role

Ball Aerospace designed, built and tested OMPS. Following the build, the company also supported instrument integration and provided launch and post-launch support.

Key Facts

OMPS, an advanced suite of three hyperspectral instruments, extends the 30-plus year total-ozone and ozone-profile records. These records are used by ozone-assessment researchers and policy makers to track the health of the ozone layer. OMPS products, when combined with cloud predictions, also help produce better ultraviolet index forecasts.

The SBUV/2, a Ball Aerospace-built ozone monitor, has provided uninterrupted, operational global measurements of ozone concentration in the Earth’s stratosphere at altitudes from 10 to 50 kilometers since 1985.