Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars (GOMOS), is aninstrument on board the EuropeansatelliteEnvisat launched 1 March 2002. It is the first space instrument dedicated to the study of theatmosphere of the Earth by the technique of stellaroccultation. The spectrum of stars in theultraviolet,visible and thenear infrared parts of theelectromagnetic spectrum is observed. It is aimed to use GOMOS to build aclimatology ofozone and related species in the middle atmosphere (15 to 100 km).
The 250-680nm spectral domain is used for the determination ofO3,NO2,NO3−,aerosols andtemperature. In addition, two high spectral resolution channels centred at 760 and 940 nm allow measurements ofO2 andH2O and two fastphotometers are used to correct star scintillation perturbations and to determine high vertical resolution temperature profiles.
Global latitude coverage is obtained with up to 40 stellar occultations perorbit from South Pole to North Pole. Data acquired on dark limb (night-time) are of better quality than on bright limb (day-time) because of a smaller perturbation by background light.
GOMOS was first proposed in 1988 as an Announcement of Opportunity instrument dedicated to be a part of the Earth Observation Polar Platform Mission, the former name of Envisat. In 1992 it was decided that GOMOS would be developed as aEuropean Space Agency-funded instrument.
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