OMPS Limb Profiler: Extending SAGE and CALIPSO Stratospheric Aerosol Records

The Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) on board Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) was launched on October 28, 2011. It consist of three instruments: Nadir Mapper (NM), Nadir Profiler (NP) and Limb Profiler (LP). The OMPS LP instrument is designed to provide high vertical resolution ozone and aerosol profiles from measurements of the scattered solar radiation in the 290-1000 nm spectral range. It collected its first Earth limb measurement in January 10, 2012, and continues to provide daily global measurements of ozone and aerosol profiles from the cloud top up to 60 km and 40 km respectively. The relatively high vertical and spatial sampling allow detection and tracking periodic events when aerosol particles are injected into the stratosphere, such as volcanic eruptions or meteor explosions. OMPS LP extend the long-term records of stratospheric aerosol at high vertical resolution produced by variety of sensors, such as SAGE, GOMOS, OSIRIS and CALIPSO. Most of these instruments ceased to operate or well beyond their designed lifetime. ISS/SAGE-III is currently scheduled to launch in November 2016.In this study we will examine the suitability of using LP profiles to continue the stratospheric aerosol records beyond SAGE and CALIPSO. We will compare OMPS LP newly released V1.0 aerosol extinction measurements to OSIRIS and CALIPSO. Initial results shows good agreement with OSIRIS measurements to within 20%. In addition, results showing latitudinal, and temporal variability of stratospheric aerosol extinction and optical depth for the three instruments will also be presented and compared.We will also present OMPS LP aerosol observations of the dispersal of volcanic aerosols in the stratosphere following the eruptions of Kelut and Calbuco in 2014 and 2015 respectively.