The Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) is the next-generation US ozone monitoring system, designed for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). The first flight of an OMPS is scheduled for late 2006 on the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite. The OMPS is designed to replace both the NASA Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) and NOAA Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Spectrometer/2 (SBUV/2) systems. The OMPS has two instrument modules: a combined Nadir Mapper and Nadir Profiler and a separate Limb Profiler.

The OMPS was designed to meet the stringent set of performance requirements for ozone products detailed in the original NPOESS system specifications. The measurements from the Nadir Mapper will provide operational total column ozone estimates for assimilation into numerical weather models and as an input to the UV Index Forecast program. The measurements will also provide the information to continue the 25-year time series of total column ozone, Aerosol Index, and UV reflectivity provided by the TOMS program and continued by the EOS OMI program. The measurements from the Nadir Profiler will provide operational ozone vertical profile estimates and time series similar to those from the heritage SBUV and SBUV/2 programs. The measurements will also provide information on atmospheric SO2 amounts. The measurements from the Limb Profiler will provide estimates of the ozone vertical profile at 3-km resolution in the middle and lower stratosphere with full global coverage every four days. In addition to improvements in operational applications, this improved resolution will be very useful for expanding our understanding and monitoring the progress of the expected recovery of the ozone layer.

An overview of the instruments, their measurements, products, retrieval algorithms and applications will be provided in this presentation.