TOMS Aerosol Optical Depth Data from Earth Probe

monthly Aerosol Index from Earth Probe

Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) data is a source of high resolution global information about the total ozone content of the atmosphere. The TOMS aerosol index is a measure of how much the wavelength dependence of backscattered UV radiation from an atmosphere containing aerosols (Mie scattering, Rayleigh scattering, and absorption) differs from that of a pure molecular atmosphere (pure Rayleigh scattering). The TOMS aerosol optical depth record covers the periods from January 1979 to April 1993 (Nimbus7-TOMS observations), and from August 1996 to December 2000 (Earth Probe TOMS measurements). These datasets are produced by the NASA/GSFC Ozone Processing Team at 380 nm for both instruments.

Variables
aerosol optical depth index and number of days per month at each grid
ZonalGlobal by 1.0 deg
MeridionalGlobal by 1.0 deg
Verticalone level  
TemporalAug 1996 to Dec 2000 by 1 month(s)
Static?yes
Volume27.48 M bytes total
Serverpublic:
Sourcehttp://toms.gsfc.nasa.gov/aerosols/aot.html 
AcquiredMar 28, 2006
APDRC contactYongsheng Zhang
Supplementsreadme.f