OMI Mission Objective 2:
What are the roles of tropospheric ozone and aerosols in climate change?

Aerosols increase the sunlight backscattered to space, and ozone is a greenhouse gas through its infrared absorption at 9.6 microns. The importance of aerosols to climate change is well known, and OMI will contribute by measuring both absorbing and non-absorbing aerosol.

The sensitivity of surface temperature to changes in ozone is a maximum for ozone changes occurring near the tropopause. TES will obtain tropospheric profiles at a limited number of locations around the globe. OMI total ozone measurements will be combined with HIRDLS and MLS measurements of the stratospheric profile to obtain daily maps of the total tropospheric ozone content. Together these measurements will provide a new and unique picture of the amount and variability of tropospheric ozone.