Great tip! Note that for this to work, you need to edit /etc/ssh/ssh_config and set PermitLocalCommand yes

There's no way to change profile from the command line using gnome-terminal, unfortunately, but there is "roxterm" which is very similar in functionality and lets you do the following to change the color scheme of the current terminal window:

    dbus-send --session /net/sf/roxterm/Options net.sf.roxterm.Options.SetColourScheme string:$ROXTERM_ID "string:NAME_OF_COLOR_SCHEME"