The SAM II instrument, aboard the Earth-orbiting Nimbus 7 spacecraft, was designed to measure solar irradiance attenuated by aerosol particles in the Arctic and Antarctic stratosphere. The scientific objective of the SAM II experiment was to develop a stratospheric aerosol database for the polar regions by measuring and mapping vertical profiles of the atmospheric extinction due to aerosols. This database allows for studies of aerosol changes due to seasonal and short-term meteorological variations, atmospheric chemistry, cloud microphysics, and volcanic activity and other perturbations. The results obtained are useful in a number of applications, particularly the evaluation of any potential climatic effect caused by stratospheric aerosols. This dataset collection contains 14 years of polar Arctic and Antarctic aerosol extinction profiles, atmospheric temperature and pressure data obtained from the Stratospheric Aerosol Instrument II (SAM II) on the NIMBUS 7 satellite.

Species profiles (SPEC files) and revision information (INDEX) from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE II), an instrument on board the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) which used the solar occultation technique to measure global profiles of aerosol extinction, temperature, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and water vapour in the stratosphere and upper troposphere. Version 1 of the data consist of monthly mean global image maps and associated gridded data for the period 1985-1993. Version 6.2, available for the period October 1984 to August 2005, superseded version 6.1 , containing INDEX and SPEC files for the period October 1984 to July 2000. Access to this dataset is partially restricted. Species information includes aerosol extinction profiles at 1020, 525, 453, and 385 nanometers, number density profiles of ozone and nitrogen dioxide, plus molecular density and mixing ratio profiles of water vapour. It also includes aerosol surface area density and effective radius profiles, and retrieved molecular density for the middle atmosphere (40-75 km). All profiles are at 0.5-km vertical resolution. These products are nearly global in coverage, with data spanning from 80 North to 80 South.

The Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) instrument aboard the NASA Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) was launched from the Space Shuttle Challenger in October 1984 (STS-41G). The ERBE instrument's main aim was to provide accurate measurements of incoming solar energy and shortwave and longwave radiation reflected or emitted from the Earth back into space. This dataset collection contains colour images (shortwave/longwave/net radiation, albedo, clear-sky albedo, clear-sky shortwave/longwave/net radiation, and shortwave/longwave/net cloud forcing) from scanning radiometers on the three ERBE satellites and for combined satellite cases. Monthly average values are included for the time periods during which the scanners were operational.

Species profiles (SPEC files) and revision information (INDEX) from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE II), an instrument on board the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) which used the solar occultation technique to measure global profiles of aerosol extinction, temperature, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and water vapour in the stratosphere and upper troposphere. Version 1 of the data consist of monthly mean global image maps and associated gridded data for the period 1985-1993. Version 6.1 contains INDEX and SPEC files for the period October 1984 to July 2000 and was superseded by version 6.2, available for the period October 1984 to August 2005. Access to this dataset is partially restricted. Species information includes aerosol extinction profiles at 1020, 525, 453, and 385 nanometers, number density profiles of ozone and nitrogen dioxide, plus molecular density and mixing ratio profiles of water vapour. It also includes aerosol surface area density and effective radius profiles, and retrieved molecular density for the middle atmosphere (40-75 km). All profiles are at 0.5-km vertical resolution. These products are nearly global in coverage, with data spanning from 80 North to 80 South.

The SAGE II (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II) sensor was launched into a 57 degree inclination orbit aboard the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) in October 1984. During each sunrise and sunset encountered by the orbiting spacecraft, the instrument used the solar occultation technique to measure attenuated solar radiation through the Earth's limb in seven channels centered at wavelengths ranging from 0.385 to 1.02 micrometers. Version 6.1 data are available from October 1984 through July 2000, in the form of index files and spec files, with software to assist processing in IDL. Version 6.2 data continue through to August 2005. The update from 6.1 to 6.2 rectifies an altitude registration problem, and there is an improvement to the water vapour product. More information about the data is available from the SAGE II web site of the NASA Langley Research Center. Version 1 contained SAGE II monthly mean global colour image maps and the relevant gridded data for aerosol extinction at 1020 nm, 525 nm, 453 nm and 385 nm wavelength, ozone mixing ratio, water vapour mixing ratio and relative humidity, nitrogen dioxide mixing ratio at up 14 pressure levels, for the period January 1985 to December 1993. As the original SAGE II measurements were made at geometrical heights, meteorological data from the National Meteorological Center (NMC) were used to determine the actual pressure heights for the SAGE II profile data and also have been used to calculate the relative humidity. For easy reference, the NMC atmospheric temperature, geometrical altitude and tropopause data used in the determination of SAGE II data are also included. Users of the image/data version 1.0 products need to be aware that these meteorological data are not measured by the SAGE II instrument itself.

The NASA Surface Radiation Budget (SRB) project computes Top-of atmosphere and Surface radiative fluxes at a 1ox 1o spatial scale for both shortwave (0.28– 4 mm) and longwave (4 mm) wavelengths. This dataset collection contains Version 1.1 Surface Radiation Budget (SRB) shortwave products for the period from March 1985 until December 1988 as produced by the World Climate Research Programme's (WCRP) SRB Satellite Data Analysis Center (SDAC). The data are derived from results from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) and the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE).