The GOLF instrument provides a stable and continuous measurement of the int
ensity of spatially integrated sunlight in one wing of the sodium D lines.
Because the detected radiation results from atomic scattering, the GOLF sig
nal can be traced to an atomic reference wavelength. The planned operations
were to involve a form of relative photometry through the use of measureme
nts on both the blue and red wings of the solar D lines of neutral sodium.
However, due to the occasional malfunction of the polarization subsystem a
"one wing photometric mode" operational alternative has been selected in or
der to ensure achievement of a 100% duty cycle. In this case, the signal ob
served consists of two photometric measurements at only one wing of each li
ne of the sodium doublet separated by g x 0.43 picometers (pm). The sodium
cell system in GOLF combines photons scattered at three different wavelengt
hs: one at D-1 and two at D-2. This paper developes a formalism to describe
this system in terms of the solar spectral line profiles. A method of conv
erting the one wing data to an effective velocity scale is presented. The m
ethod is applied to the nearly continuous 804 day sequence received from th
e GOLF instrument prior to the loss of telecommunications with SOHO on 24-J
une-1998. The resulting time sequence is part of the GOLF archive and can b
e made available to investigators. This publication describes some properti
es of this time series.