There are three types of SBUV/2 ozone products. They are the Level 1b Capture product, the Historical Instruments file product and the Product Master File product. The format description for all three of these products are listed in the Solar Backscattered Ultraviolet Radiometer Version 2 (SBUV/2) User's Guide, which is available from SSB.

The Level 1b Capture product contains all SBUV/2 sensor data and support data necessary for the derivation of atmospheric ozone and solar flux.

The Historical Instrument File contains the data necessary to characterize the instrument performance and albedo correction over time.

The Product Master File contains the ozone information derived by the ozone algorithm, located in space and time, other meteorological information developed in support of the ozone computations, parameters indicating the validity of the individual ozone retrievals and the radiance information derived from the SBUV/2 measurements.

There are two main classes of SBUV/2 ozone products: operational and reprocessed. The Operational products are generated by the NOAA/NESDIS Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution's Product Systems Branch. The Reprocessed products are generated by the NOAA/NESDIS Office of Research and Application's Physics Branch. Operational data are kept in the archive until replaced by Reprocessed data. There are 14 to 15 orbits per day and one calendar month per cartridge tape.

The operational NOAA-9 data set begins with March 1985 and ends February 20, 1998. The operational NOAA-11 data set begins with January 1989 and ends April 1995. It was restarted on June 8, 1999 and continues to the present. The operational NOAA-14 data set begins with February 1995 and continues to the present.

The NOAA-9 SBUV/2 total ozone data have been reprocessed for the time period 1985-1997 with improved instrument characterization and calibration. The improved calibration includes time dependent changes to solar diffuser reflectivity, photomultiplier tube gain range ratios, and photomultiplier tube hysteresis correction. The newly reprocessed NOAA-9 total ozone data have been validated at 2% by comparing with ozone measurements made by ground-based Dobson stations. The NOAA-9 profile ozone data will soon be reprocessed with improved calibration at shorter wavelengths.

The NOAA-11 SBUV/2 ozone data have been reprocessed for the time period 1989-1994 with improved instrument characterization and calibration. The improved calibration includes time dependent changes to solar diffuser reflectivity and photomultiplier tube gain range ratios. The reprocessed NOAA-11 total ozone data have been validated at 1% by comparing with ozone measurements made by ground-based Dobson stations. Reprocessing of NOAA-11 profile ozone data to correct for instrument and algorithm errors are currently underway.

The NOAA-14 SBUV/2 ozone data have been reprocessed for the time period 1995-1998 with improved instrument characterization and calibration. The improved calibration includes time dependent changes to solar diffuser reflectivity and photomultiplier tube gain range ratios. The reprocessed NOAA-14 total ozone data have been validated at 2% by comparing with ozone measurements made by ground-based Dobson stations.

Source: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov