SAGE III has been selected for flight on the Russian Meteor 3M satellite and the International Space Station. SAGE III will retrieve global profiles (with 1- to 2-km vertical resolution) of atmospheric aerosols, ozone, water vapor, nitrogen dioxide, NO3 , OClO, temperature, and pressure in the mesosphere, stratosphere, and troposphere. It will investigate the variability of the measured species in time and space to determine their roles in climatological processes, biogeochemical cycles, the hydrologic cycle, and atmospheric chemistry. It will also characterize tropospheric and stratospheric aerosols and upper tropospheric and stratospheric clouds, and investigate their effects on the EarthΓÇÖs environment, including their radiative, microphysical, and chemical interactions. SAGE III looks through the atmosphere at both the Sun and the Moon, at different times. Changes in the incoming radiation can be related to the amounts and distributions of the aerosols and gaseous constituents of the atmosphere in the path between the satellite and the sun or moon. This procedure is known as an ΓÇ£occultationΓÇ¥ process.
