The GOME instrument aboard ESA’s ERS-2 satellite measures
upwelling radiance from the atmosphere and extraterrestrial solar
irradiance. The amount and distribution of a variety of
significant atmospheric trace constituents may be retrieved from
these observations. It was designed and optimized primarily to
measure the global ozone distribution, but also the amounts of
the trace gases BrO, OCIO, H2O, HCHO and NO2 can be obtained.
The GOME instrument comprises a nadir-viewing spectrometer which
observes simultaneously the entire spectral range between 240 and
793 nm at channel dependent spectral resolutions between 0.2 and
0.4 nm. From the spectral features of the trace gases, their
vertical columns are retrieved. Because of its sun-synchronous
polar orbit, GOME measurements in middle latitudes are always
taken in the late morning local time. With its swath width of 960
km (single ground pixel size is 320 km across track and 40 km
along track) GOME reaches full coverage at the mid-latitudes
within 2-3 days.
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