Application of a Rocket-Borne UV Radiometer Onboard KSR-III for O ₃ Measurements

KSR-III, the third Korean Sounding Rocket, was launched successfully at Anheung, Korea on Nov. 28, 2002. One of the scientific missions of KSR-III was to measure the stratospheric ozone density profile by using an onboard four-channel UV radiometer. The apogee of the rocket was 42.8 km, and the total flight time was 231 s. The UV radiometer onboard the KSR-III measured the attenuation of solar radiation during ascending phase to obtain a vertical profile of the ozone density. The detector has UV channels centered at 255, 290, and 310 nm and a visible channel at 450 nm for attitude reference. Because the measurement of the solar radiation depends on the response function of the sensor, calibrations of interference filters and phototubes must be done. The optical calibration system consists of a monochromator, an optical power meter, light detectors, standard light sources, a control PC, and data acquisition software. The application of the rocket-borne UV radiometer onboard the KSR-III to the ozone measurement are presented together with the calibration results from the integrated calibration system at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. Using the calibration results and the in-situ measurement data, we obtained the ozone number density profile, and compared with other measurements.