6  Data Analysis and Publication Plan

Before the project is flown, a number of preliminary studies will be carried out.  These will evaluate and optimize the choice of techniques to be used in interpreting synthetic data before the launch and real data obtained from the mission itself.  Consequently, they will generate publishable research. 

During the pre-launch phase of NiteOwl, synthetic occultation data will be generated.  This data include an assumed distribution of absorbing atmospheric constituents, known atmospheric phenomena as well as expected levels of systematic and random noise.  The spectral inversion of these data sets using a variety of techniques will enable evaluation of their abilities to discriminate between absorption features and phenomena not indicative of atmospheric column densities.  

Once column densities have been obtained, tomographic reconstruction can be completed.  This will begin with vertical inversion and culminate in an evaluation of an array of tomographic methods for their capability to reproduce the known distributions in the originating synthetic data.  These results will be publishable.

The optical configuration to be used with this project is not a common one.  Innovative optical design used in this project may form an important part of the larger paper to be prepared on the NiteOwl project.  This paper, to be submitted after launch, will include an overview of our mission, design, execution and the data gathered along with some preliminary results of data interpretation.  The lessons learned will be pivotal to the successful design and launch of a Canadian ozone monitoring satellite.

Subsequent to the general mission paper, detailed column density and tomography results will be published along with comparisons to contemporary results obtained by others monitoring the problem of polar stratospheric ozone depletion.

In addition to these results, the data gained from the global positioning system and the attitude video camera will enable the analysis and publication of the payload dynamics accompanying a high-altitude deployment of a low-spin parachute.  This will be a useful report on the state-of-the-art, comparing what has been achieved since the important paper on the subject by Mendel N. Silbert of Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center in 1983 in J Spac Rock (20(1):11-14).

- Megan White & John Steele