GOME Applications GOME has provided the first European trace gas measurements from space and has been a signficant breakthrough for atmospheric remote sensing and the study of the physics and the chemistry of the atmosphere. As an instrument it is working as well today as it was at launch. GOME continues to provide data on stratospheric ozone, its primary objective, ad key gases that control ozone such as NO2, OClO and BrO. A secondary objective was to retrieve tropospheric trace gases such as NO2, SO2, HCHO, H2O and cloud and aerosol parameters. GOME continues to meet these goals very successfully. GOME data are downlinked to ground stations around the world. These measurements can be used to determine the rate at which the atmosphere is recovering following the Montreal Protocol that initiated action to reduce ozone depleting substances in the atmosphere. "GOME is providing evidence for changes in circulation patterns in the stratosphere and is helping to answer the question: Are these natural changes or a response to the earth atmosphere system to climate chemistry interactions?" Professor John Burrows, IUP/IFE, University of Bremen GOME provides measurements of gases that control ozone as well as details of the structure of the atmisophere, such as in this example, where the polar vortex has been initiated.

Keywords: ESA European Space Agency - Agence spatiale europeenne, observation de la terre, earth observation, satellite remote sensing, teledetection, geophysique, altimetrie, radar, chimique atmospherique, geophysics, altimetry, radar, atmospheric chemistry