The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III on the International Space Station (ISS) ninth annual science team meeting was held August 19–20, 2026 at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Approximately 60 scientists and engineers participated in the hybrid meeting, discussing the status of the mission, instrument operations, data processing, as well as modeling and analysis, algorithm development and refinement, and scientific findings from studies using SAGE III/ISS observations. Participants included researchers from U.S. universities, NASA Langley, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and NOAA laboratories. International and virtual participants included researchers from University of Saskatchewan, Canada and Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy.
The meeting highlighted continued strong mission performance, including progress toward releasing expedited products in CY26, various standard product improvements in the next version (V 6.1) in CY27, and development of a nighttime lunar occultation aerosol product to augment the solar aerosol product. The meeting underscored the critical role of SAGE III/ISS measurements as an anchor dataset for studying atmospheric composition and its long-term trends in the upper troposphere and stratosphere. SAGE III/ISS particle-size information is increasingly important for improving aerosol retrieval algorithms for OMPS-LP, OSIRIS, and other instruments, including those on STRIVE, HAWC, and ALTIUS. Long-term, vertically resolved SAGE datasets remain essential for detecting changes in ozone, water vapor, and aerosols. Major perturbation events such as the Hunga eruption in 2022 and the Australian fires in 2020 provide important natural experiments for evaluating SAGE III/ISS science and data products through cross-validation with OMPS-LP, OSIRIS, CALIOP, MLS, balloon measurements, and ground-based networks. Improved data processing, visualization, and user-access tools are also important for maximizing the scientific value and broader use of SAGE III/ISS observations.
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