GOMOS instrument: Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars

The GOMOS mission

GOMOS is a medium resolution spectrometer which was launched as part of the ENVISAT satellite payload on 1 March 2002 to observe ozone. It produces very high-precision ozone profiles which are essential for our understanding of ozone chemistry and for validating models.
The main characteristics of GOMOS are:
- profile measurements for O3, NO2, NO3, OClO, temperature, water vapour;
- day and night-time measurement capability;
- global coverage and approximately 600 profiles per day;
- measurements between the altitude of the tropopause and 100 km;
- altitude resolution better than 1.7 km.

GOMOS measures atmospheric components by spectral analysis. It takes its measurements by stellar occultation, meaning that it locks onto a star outside the atmosphere and follows it down as it sets through the Earths atmosphere as far as the horizon. During occultation, the UV, visible and infrared channels are recorded continuously. More information about the GOMOS instrument and the ENVISAT satellite can be found on the dedicated sites of ESA and CNES.

Products available through Ether

- GOMOS O₃, NO₂, NO₃, H₂O and Aerosols profiles
All the parameters within a file, L2 LATMOS, ASCII format.
- GOMOS_VAL O₃, NO₂, NO₃
All the parameters within a file, L2 LPC2E, ASCII format.

Publications : Special issue of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics on the GOMOS' results