SAGE III/ISS Mission Overview

The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III (SAGE III) payload is scheduled to be installed on the ISS in 2016, collecting 16 sunrises and 16 sunset occultation measurements a day. While performing remote sensing of the Earth's atmosphere, payload sub-systems will collect data on contamination and platform disturbances of the ISS environment. The SAGE III/ISS payload consists of: an optical telescope and spectrometer instrument assembly (IA) recording sunlight data over the spectral range of 290nm to 1050nm, a Hexapod assembly to point the SAGE III IA in the nadir position adjusting for ISS orientation changes, two Contamination Monitoring Packages (CMPs) designed to collect data on the environmental contamination in the location of the ELC4, and a Disturbance Monitoring Package (DMP) which will provide data on the vibration/disturbances affecting the location of the payload on the ELC4. With a 51.6 degree orbital inclination, the ISS allows a near global observation platform of the Earth's atmosphere, allowing the SAGE III instrument to add to the long-term atmospheric measurement record of ozone, aerosols, and water vapor from space while providing environmental information for future ISS payloads.