National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The accompanying animation shows the total ozone fields through August and September 2017. In addition to the characteristics of each observation type for the total ozone that are evident in the image shown here, the animation highlights how the data assimilation process leads to dynamical fields of ozone in MERRA-2. Time sequences of the OMI, APMS-NP and EPIC observations emphasizes the changing coverage of the instruments over the globe, as the instruments orbit the Earth (OMI, OMPS-NP) or the Earth rotates under the sun (EPIC). The assimilation process results in global ozone distributions at every location in the MERRA-2 dataset, so the animation emphasizes the dynamical evolution of the global ozone field as it is transported around the globe. Read more.