Retrieval of OClO, BrO and other "minor" trace gases from GOME

Michael Eisinger ^1,2, John P. Burrows², Andreas Richter², Annette Ladstaetter-Weissenmayer²

1: Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany
2: Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) on board ESA's 2nd European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-2) measures earth radiance and solar irradiance spectra between 240 and 790 nm. Inversion of these measurements enables a variety of atmospheric trace gases having banded absorptions in this wavelength range to be retrieved. The "strong" absorber ozone is GOME's primary target species. However, the amounts of a number of important atmospheric trace gases gases which have relatively weak atmospheric absorptions compared to ozone can also be retrieved. This study focusses on the detection of "weak" absorbers by means of the Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) method. First results from an investigation of OClO and BrO column measurements obtained from the GOME data are presented for the Antarctic Ozone Holes of 1995 and 1996. Similarly, the status of the investigations will be reported for the retrieval of SO₂, HCHO, ClO, and NO₃ .

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