GOME-2 - Achievements and Future Perspectives

The Second Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME-2) performs operational global monitoring of ozone column densities and ozone profiles, and column densities of other atmospheric trace gases such as NO(2), BrO, OClO, HCHO, and SO(2). GOME-2 is an improved version of the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME-1) launched 1995 onboard the second European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-2). It was launched on the first of the Metop series of polar-orbiting operational meteorological satellites on 19th October 2006. The remaining two satellites in the series will be launched in 2011 and 2015. GOME-2 Level 1b products are produced centrally at EUMETSAT in the Core Ground Segment and were declared operational in March 2008. GOME-2 Level 2 products are produced by the Ozone Monitoring and Atmospheric Chemistry Satellite Application Facility, part of the EUMETSAT Distributed Ground Segment, hosted by the Finnish Meteorological Institute. Ozone profile, total column ozone and total and tropospheric column NO2 products have been declared 'pre- operational' at the time of writing. Remaining products are under development. An overview of the achievements of the GOME-2 mission, the product and application development status and the perspectives for the future will be presented.