Science Objectives of the Ozone Monitoring Instrument

The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) flies on NASA's EOS-AURA satellite, launched in July 2004. OMI is a UV/VIS nadir solar backscatter spectrometer, which provides near global coverage in one day, with a spatial resolution of 13 km x 24 km. Trace gases measured include O3, NO2, SO2, HCHO, BrO and OClO. In addition OMI measures aerosol characteristics, cloud top heights and cloud coverage, and UV irradiance at the surface. OMI's unique capabilities for measuring important trace gases with daily global coverage and a small footprint, will make a major contribution to our understanding of stratospheric and tropospheric chemistry and climate change along with Aura’s other three instruments. OMI’s high spatial resolution enables detection of air pollution at urban scales. TOMS and DOAS heritage algorithms, as well as new ones developed by the international (Dutch, Finnish, and United States) OMI science team, are used to derive OMI’s advanced backscatter data products. In addition to providing data for Aura’s prime objectives, OMI will provide near-real time data for operational agencies in Europe and the United States. Examples of OMI’s unique capabilities are presented in this paper.