The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment, SAGE, is a series of instruments designed by NASA to observe stratospheric ozone, aerosols, and water vapor from space. In the mid-1980s, scientists realized there was a problem with Earth’s protective coat of ozone...it was thinning. The SAGE family of instruments was pivotal in making accurate measurements of the amount of ozone loss in Earth’s atmosphere and helped leaders around the world institute an international treaty banning products containing harmful chemicals that destroy stratospheric ozone. SAGE is a key part of NASA’s mission to provide crucial, long-term measurements that will help humans better understand and care for Earth’s atmosphere.
Updated status on stratospheric aerosols using recently released public data from SAGE III/ISS Figure 1 below shows the bulk of the stratospheric aerosol layer around 10S latitude with slightly larger amounts in the Southern Hemisphere. This spatial distribution has been similar since early 2022 following the eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcano in January […]
