Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (Instrument)

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The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) is a series of experiments in which the chemical composition of the earth's atmosphere is researched with the help of remote sensing satellites . In particular, SAGE was used to study the earth's ozone layer and the aerosols in the troposphere through the stratosphere . The instruments used in the experiments use occultation measuring techniques to determine the chemical gas concentrations in the atmosphere. These techniques measure sunlight at sunrise and sunset as the satellites pass around the earth. These measurement results are compared with the solar radiation that is not attenuated by the atmosphere. In the case of the SAGE test series, the energies of light in the UV spectrum and in the spectrum of visible light are measured. The chemical composition of the earth's atmosphere can then be determined using calculation algorithms such as the radiation transport equation. The data from the SAGE series were used to research the content of ozone , trace gases, water vapor and other aerosols in the atmosphere.

So far there have been four SAGE test series:

  • SAGE I flew with the Explorer 60 (launched February 18, 1979)
  • SAGE II was part of the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS, launched October 5, 1984)
  • SAGE III flew into space with the METEOR-3M-1 satellite on December 10, 2001 with a Zenit-2 from the Baikonur spaceport . After the energy supply was exhausted, the satellite ceased operations on March 6, 2006.
  • A fourth generation of the SAGE instrument ("SAGE III on ISS") was brought on board the ISS in February 2017 .

Web links

  • NASA: SAGE (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ SAGE III - Meteor-3M ( Memento from September 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Gunter Krebs: Meteor-3M (17F45M). In: Gunter's Space Page. July 17, 2017, accessed July 19, 2017 .
  3. ↑ NASA: NASA's Next Ozone Layer Instrument Arrives at Launch Site. In: Press Release 15-062. November 23, 2015, accessed July 19, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Bob Granath: SAGE III to Look Back at Earth's Atmospheric 'Sunscreen'. NASA, August 11, 2016, accessed July 19, 2017 .