Contribution to the Aura mission?

Each Aura instrument makes a contribution to the Aura mission science objectives. OMI contributes in the following way:

1. Continue the TOMS, SBUV and GOME ozone column and profile data. In addition OMI will continue the GOME column measurements of BrO, OClO and NO₂.
   
   
2. Observe tropospheric pollution and its precursors due to biomass burning, industrial and traffic emissions such as NO₂, aerosols, formaldehyde (HCHO) and ozone.
   The small pixel size (13 x 24 km²) will be the highest spatial resolution ever achieved from space for trace gas measurements and increases sensitivity in the troposphere.
   
   
3. Since ozone is an important greenhouse gas, continuation of the TOMS total ozone record is essential for meeting the third science objective of EOS-Aura. The aerosol, cloud fraction and cloud top height detection of OMI are also important parameters for climate change.
   
   
4. OMI will also contribute to operational meteorology by the daily Near Real Time (NRT) ozone measurements (i.e. within 3 hours from detection), from which wind-field information can be deduced at altitudes where wind-field measurements are scarce.
   Furthermore, OMI will provide Very Fast Delivery (VFD) ozone and UV products (within 30 minutes of detection) for north and middle Europe using the direct broadcast feature from Aura.