The full east to west scan of the mirror through 960 km is completed in 4.5 s.

During this scan three successive spectral measurements are performed. For all but the shortest wavelength region (UV 240–283 nm, channel 1a) the integration time of a single spectral measurement is 1.5 s.

This integration time of 1.5 s is really the result of four individual measurements of 0.3.7.5 s, which are co-added before saving and down-linking the data. The shorter exposure time avoids the detector saturation that was experienced during the first weeks of the GOME mission over clouds.

This means that the ground area of the scan is sampled in three sections or pixels, each 320 x 40 km. The pixels are named East, Centre and West.

As a result of the motion of the satellite during the scan, the pixels produced by the rectangular scan represent parallelograms on the Earth's surface.