MICROTOPS II is a five-channel, handheld Sun photometer that can be configured to measure total ozone, total water vapor, or aerosol optical thickness at various wavelengths. The instrument measures 10¿20¿4.3 cm and weighs 600 g. A principal design goal was the measurement of total ozone to within 1% of ozone measurements made by much larger, heavier, and more expensive Dobson and Brewer spectrophotometers. This goal has been met for a maximum air mass of up to ~2.5, as demonstrated by comparisons of MICROTOPS II and its immediate predecessor, Supertops, with Dobson and Brewer instruments at various locations. Conventional interference filters are subject to gradual and unpredictable degradation. MICROTOPS II avoids these problems by using highly stable ultraviolet filters manufactured with an ion deposition process. The 2.4 nm (FWHM) band pass of the UV filters was selected to balance noise and ozone measurement performance. The optical collimators and electronics of the instrument were carefully designed to optimize pointing accuracy, stray light rejection, thermal and long-term stability, signal-to-noise ratio, and data analysis. An internal microcomputer automatically calculates the total ozone column based on measurements at three UV wavelengths, the site's geographic coordinates, and universal time, altitude, and pressure. The coordinates can be entered manually or by a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. A built-in pressure transducer automatically measures pressure. MICROTOPS II saves in nonvolatile memory up to 800 scans of the raw and calculated data. Measurements can be read from a liquid crystal display or transferred to an external computer. ¿ 2001 American Geophysical Union