The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) was a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

satellite instrument, specifically a

spectrometer A spectrometer () is a scientific instrument used to separate and measure spectral components of a physical phenomenon. Spectrometer is a broad term often used to describe instruments that measure a continuous variable of a phenomenon where the ...

, for measuring the ozone layer. Of the five TOMS instruments which were built, four entered successful orbit. The satellites carrying TOMS instruments were: *

Nimbus 7 Nimbus 7 (also called Nimbus G) was a meteorological satellite. It was the seventh and last in a series of the Nimbus program. Launch Nimbus 7 was launched on October 24, 1978, by a Delta rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, Uni ...

; launched October 24, 1978. Operated until 1 August 1994. Carried TOMS instrument number 1. * Meteor-3-5; launched 15 August 1991. Operated until December 1994. Was the first and last Soviet satellite to carry a USA made instrument. Carried TOMS instrument number 2. *

ADEOS I ADEOS I (Advanced Earth Observing Satellite 1) was an Earth observation satellite launched by NASDA in 1996. The mission's Japanese name, Midori means "green". The mission ended in July 1997 after the satellite sustained structural damage to t ...

; launched 17 August 1996. Operated until 30 June 1997. Mission was cut short by a spacecraft failure. * TOMS-Earth Probe; launched on July 2, 1996. Operated until 2 December 2006. Carried TOMS instrument number 3. * QuikTOMS; launched 21 September 2001. Suffered launch failure and did not enter orbit.

and Meteor-3-5 provided global measurements of total column ozone on a daily basis and together provided a complete data set of daily ozone from November 1978 to December 1994. After an eighteen-month period when the program had no on-orbit capability, TOMS-Earth Probe launched on 2 July 1996, followed by . ADEOS I was launched on August 17, 1996, and the TOMS-instrument onboard provided data until the satellite which housed it lost power on June 30, 1997. TOMS-Earth Probe (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer - Earth Probe, TOMS-EP, originally just TOMS, COSPAR 1996-037A) was launched on July 2, 1996, from

Vandenberg AFB Vandenberg Space Force Base , previously Vandenberg Air Force Base, is a United States Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. Established in 1941, Vandenberg Space Force Base is a space launch base, launching spacecraft from th ...

by a

Pegasus XL Pegasus is an Air launch to orbit, air-launched launch vehicle developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) and now built and launched by Northrop Grumman. Capable of carrying small payloads of up to into low Earth orbit, Pegasus first fl ...

rocket. The satellite project was originally known as TOMS, back in 1989 when it was selected as a SMEX mission in the

Explorer program The Explorers program is a NASA exploration program that provides flight opportunities for physics, geophysics, heliophysics, and astrophysics investigations from space. Launched in 1958, Explorer 1 was the first spacecraft of the United Stat ...

. However, it found no funding as an Explorer mission and transferred to

's Earth Probe program, getting funding and becoming TOMS-EP. The small, 295 kg satellite was built for NASA by TRW; the single instrument was the TOMS 3 spectrometer. The satellite had a two-year planned life. TOMS-EP suffered a two-year delay to its launch due to launch failures of the first two Pegasus XL rockets. The launch delays led to alternations in the mission; the satellite was placed in a lower than originally planned orbit to achieve higher resolution and to enable more thorough study of UV-absorbing aerosols in the troposphere. The lower orbit was meant to complement measurements from ADEOS I enabling TOMS-EP to provide supplemental measurements. After ADEOS I failed in orbit, TOMS-EP was boosted to a higher orbit to replace ADEOS I. The transmitter for TOMS-Earth Probe failed on December 2, 2006. The only total failure in the series was QuikTOMS, which was launched on September 21, 2001, on a

Taurus Taurus is Latin for 'bull' and may refer to: * Taurus (astrology), the astrological sign * Taurus (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac * Taurus (mythology), one of two Greek mythological characters named Taurus * '' Bos tauru ...

rocket from

, but did not achieve orbit. Since January 1, 2006, data from the Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) has replaced data from TOMS-Earth Probe. The

Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS), is a suite of instruments built by Ball Aerospace that measure the global distribution of ozone and, less frequently, how it is distributed vertically within the stratosphere. The suite flies on the Suomi N ...

Suomi NPP The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP), previously known as the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) and NPP-Bridge, is a weather satellite operated by the United States ...

and

NOAA-20 NOAA-20, designated JPSS-1 prior to launch, is the first of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's latest generation of U.S. polar-orbiting, non-geosynchronous, environmental satellites called the Joint Polar Sat ...

have further continued the data record.

Gallery

Image:NASA and NOAA Announce Ozone Hole is a Double Record Breaker.png, Image of the largest Antarctic ozone hole recorded to date (September 2006). Image:TOMS AI Jun16 91.gif, Mount Pinatubo 1991 ash and aerosol. Image:TOMS SO2 Jun17 91.gif, Mount Pinatubo 1991 sulfur dioxide. Image:TOMS SO2 time nov03.png, Sulfur dioxide emissions from volcanoes.

References

External links

TOMS home page

TOMS Volcanic Emissions Group

Gallery

References

External links

Further reading