Artist's impression of MetOP-A

MetOP-A is the first of three EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS) satellites. It was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) on behalf of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). GOME-2 is on board the MetOp Earth monitoring satellite, launched on 12 October 2006, and is continuously taking measurements of the atmosphere. GOME-2 continues the series of ESA instruments GOME/ERS-2 and SCIAMACHY/Envisat, which have been monitoring the Ozone Layer successfully since 1995 and 2002 respectively.