An Overview of SAGE III Validation Activities during the SOLVE-2/VINTERSOL Campaigns

A major goal of the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) II and the Validation of International Satellites and Study of Ozone Loss (VINTERSOL) field experiments is to support validation studies for a new generation of satellite experiments that had been recently placed in orbit. The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III instrument was launched in December 2001 on board a Russian Meteor 3M satellite to provide information on the behavior of ozone, aerosols, water vapor and other trace species at high and mid latitudes in the upper troposphere and stratosphere. The instrument supports an advanced design from its predecessor with added spectral coverage and resolution and greater dynamic range that allows for observations during solar and lunar occultations as well as measurements of scattered light along the limb. During the SOLVE-2/VINTERSOL campaigns, a comprehensive set of correlative measurements was obtained from a network of ground-based instruments and the launch small balloon payloads from high latitude sites, the launch of several large balloon payloads and multiple rockets from Esrange, Sweden and flights of the NASA DC-8, the DLR Falcon, and the M55 Geophysica aircraft based from Kiruna, Sweden. These measurements provide an opportunity to assess biases between instrument techniques and to help interpret satellite observations in a variety of meteorological settings. This presentation will highlight comparison findings for the SAGE III satellite experiment from the array of observations collected during the SOLVE-2/VINTERSOL campaigns.