The proposed research is for a three-year effort to insure that OMPS data will be suitable for long-term climate research. This proposal concentrates on the two nadir instruments, the Ozone Total Column Mapper and the Nadir Profiler, but this proposal is closely linked to a complementary proposal that concentrates on the OMPS Limb Profiler sensor. The research begins with an analysis of the pre-launch calibration test and characterization data for the OMPS nadir mapper and nadir profiler instruments from the perspective of CDR requirements. The existing software to produce the Sensor Data Records (SDRs) will be restructured to guarantee that the code is accurate and maintainable, and to facilitate closed-loop testing to ensure a close coupling between sensor characterization and the code to convert telemetered signals to calibrated radiances. The goal is to have software ready at launch that can supply input data for the EDR software for both the nadir and limb instruments. The EDR algorithms will be tested using data from similar instruments currently flying. OMI and GOME-2 should be particularly suitable for testing the algorithms for the Ozone Total Column Mapper and the Nadir Profiler. Recent work on algorithms that take advantage of the hyperspectral capability of these instruments will be evaluated for possible use with OMPS. A long term climate data record (CDR) for ozone requires that stable data records from multiple instruments be combined to create a merged ozone data record that can be used for trend analysis. We will develop techniques that will allow the merger of present well established satellite ozone data sets with data from OMPS instruments on NPP and NPOESS.
