Despite its low atmospheric abundance, bromine monoxide (BrO) plays an important role in the chemistry of the atmosphere because of its very high efficiency as a catalyst of the ozone destruction.

The role of BrO has been highlighted first in the context of the stratospheric ozone layer problematic. Recent findings, however, have demonstrated that BrO is also produced with significant amounts in the troposphere where it can influence the chemistry of tropospheric ozone.

Daily images of bromine monoxide (BrO) observations by the OMI and GOME-2 satellite instruments in support of the ARCTAS Spring 2008 campaign. For each instrument, a single image contains a map of the total column BrO averaged over all data available within a 24 hour window.

+ Get more OMI BrO measurements and still images

This animation shows the BrO measurements from OMI for April 2008. Unfilled/non-colored areas in the plots correspond to missing data.