Satellite Application Facility on Atmospheric Composition Monitoring
The AC SAF generates Near Real Time products such as vertical ozone profiles, absorbing aerosol index and cloud information, and offline products such as global albedo maps and sun induced fluorescence maps from (GOME-2) satellite data, as part of the EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facilities network.
Satellite Application Facility on Atmospheric Composition Monitoring (AC SAF), formerly known as the Ozone Monitoring SAF (O3M SAF), is part of the EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facilities network. The AC SAF produces a wide range of satellite derived data products, all related to the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere or the Earth’s surface. Most of these products are trace gas concentrations such as vertical ozone profiles, trace gas columns such as total ozone column, NO2, SO2 and CO columns or products related to aerosols such as the absorbing aerosol index (AAI). At ground level, the AC SAF produces maps of Lambertian equivalent reflectivity (albedo), and sun induced fluorescence of vegetation. The ozone data is used to make long term UV time series and UV forecasts for public health.
The EUMETSAT SAF’s are an international network of consortia of (mostly) National Meteorological Services in Europe. They work together to maximise the effective and efficient use of Europe’s operational meteorological satellite infrastructure. Currently (2017) the SAF’s have just started the 3rd Continueous Development and Operations Phase (CDOP-3), which is a 5 year project.
