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Ball
Ball

OMPS

Ozone Mapping & Profiler Suite 

Improving environmental data records 

OMPS is one of five instruments that launched aboard our Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (NPP) spacecraft in 2011. OMPS measures atmospheric ozone and how ozone concentration varies with altitude. It functions like other similar instruments, but provides data with higher fidelity. 

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. 

We built a second OMPS flight unit that flies on the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1) launched in 2017. This flight unit doesn’t include the limb profiler.

High vertical resolution measurements of the ozone layer from the limb profiler on OMPS
High vertical resolution measurements of the ozone layer from the limb profiler on OMPS. Credit: NASA

What we did 

Instrument provider 

We designed, built and tested both OMPS instruments, as well as supported instrument integration on both the Suomi NPP and JPSS-1 satellites. As a result of Ball’s success on OMPS, we received a sole-source contract from NASA to build OMPS instruments for all three of the next JPSS follow-on missions. OMPS extends 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, an ozone monitor we also built, has been providing uninterrupted global measurements of ozone concentration at altitudes from 10 to 50 kilometers (6.2 to 31 miles) since 1985.

Space-based Environmental Intelligence

See how Ball's heritage with Earth science is helping deliver data and monitor our planet.