The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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As solar radiation reaches the Earth's atmosphere and surface a certain percentage is reflected or backscattered out to space. The degree to which incident light is backscattered depends on the albedo of the surface the light encounters, for example, clouds in the atmosphere have a high albedo so a large proportion of sunlight is reflected back.
GOME-2 is able determine amounts of certain gases present in the atmosphere through the principles of spectrometry, where, in incoming light is split into its spectral components to reveal absorption lines, which correspond to the various gases present the observed sample.