The Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Sounder (SBUS) is on-board the FY-3 B-Star polar orbiting satellite and collects ultraviolet spectral data to monitor, among other things, global atmospheric ozone levels.

The design life of SBUS was initially 3 years, but the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics(CIOMP) is pleased to announce that after passing its fifth birthday, the SBUS continues to collect data with instruments that are operating stably and as normal.The SBUSwill continue extended service for as long as practicable to collectimportant data for environmental monitoring, weather forecasting and global climate research.

CIOMP developed the SBUS and launched it on November 5, 2010, with FY3 B-Star, which contains a number of important sensors. Six days later, the instrument wa sunfolded and after successful in-orbit tests was made fully operational.

From its height of 830km,the SBUS obtained China’s first sun/atmosphere ultraviolet spectral data, which is used to estimatethe global atmospheric ozone vertical profile. By monitoring the distribution of ozone and its variation in height, we can provide basic data for climate model calculations as well as assess the impact of human activities on the distribution of ozone in the atmosphere.

The instrument fundamentally altered China’s ability to collect atmospheric ozone data, and lifted China to the elite international level in remote sensing technology. For instance, with the help of the SBUS, the China Meteorological Administration monitored the progress of the development and demise of the serious Arctic low ozone event in the spring of 2011. This marked the first time Chinese-made instruments were used to monitor changes in global atmospheric ozone levels.

The extended and stable operational service of the SBUS demonstrates CIOMP’s place among the elite in the research and development of spectral remote sensing instruments. It also provides an important foundationfor future Chinese and global research into long-life and high-precision satellite payloads.

In the future, the Ultraviolet Optical and Imaging Technology Laboratory in CIOMP will continue to make breakthroughs in key technologies of ultraviolet imaging spectrum detection, provide more advanced instruments for atmospheric detection and space physics research, and make contributions to the development of the ultraviolet remote sensing technology of our country.

SBUS Antarctic polar ozone total projection(Image by CIOMP)