I am a member of NASA's NPP Science Team and Ozone PEATE. NPP stands for NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPOESS is the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System). The NPP satellite, to be launched in early 2011, is a joint mission between NASA and the NPOESS Integrated Program Office (IPO); the sensors on NPP will continue the measurements of NASA's EOS system while providing risk reduction for the future NPOESS program. PEATE stands for Product Evaluation and Algorithm Test Element and supports the science team in evaluating the ozone products that will be provided by the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) on NPP. In particular, we are investigating the suitability of the measurements for developing Climate Data Records (CDRs). All of the PEATEs are part of NASA's Science Data Segment (SDS). I am also involved in figuring out how best to validate measurements from OMPS once it's launched on the NPP satellite.

I was a member of the System Engineering and Test Integrated Product Team (IPT) for NPOESS. NPOESS is a joint Air Force, NOAA, and NASA program to develop the next generation polar-orbiting weather satellite system. Part of this IPT's job is to develop the calibration/validation component of the NPP/NPOESS system. I concentrated on (but was not limited to) cal/val for OMPS.

I developed the total column ozone retrieval algorithm that the OMPS nadir sensor will use and helped to develop the algorithm used by the OMPS limb sensor to retrieve the ozone profile. I was also part of the team that defined the sensor performance characteristics for the OMPS sensors so that, when they are used with the OMPS algorithms, the whole system will provide optimized performance.

I contributed to the development of Version 7 of NASA's total column ozone retrieval algorithm used by the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) sensors. I created simulations and analysis techniques designed to estimate the errors inherent in such algorithms and worked closely with instrument design personnel to help evaluate sensor performance and its effect on algorithm accuracy and precision. I also helped develop, analyze, and validate the Aerosol Index, a product from UV sensors such as TOMS to detect and track UV-absorbing tropospheric aerosols, and I have been involved in retrieving volcanic SO₂ and ash amounts from TOMS data. Finally, I helped (a bit) in the development of Version 8 of the TOMS algorithm that not only is used with TOMS but also with the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) onboard EOS-Aura.