EarthCARE successfully deployed

Congratulations to the 23 UK organisations involved in the newest climate data satellite in space – EarthCARE.

The satellite, that will transform our understanding of the impact of clouds and aerosols on climate change successfully, launched shortly before midnight BST on Tuesday, May 28^th.

Scientists from the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO), University of Reading, European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and representatives from the UK Space Agency and European Space Agency (ESA) were at the SpaceX launch site in California and at ESA’s Mission Control in Darmstadt, Germany.

The launch went without a hitch, EarthCARE reached its orbit, 400km above the Earth, deployed its 11m solar panel and, less than an hour later, made first contact with its first ground station.

The launchpad gantry pulls back from EarthCARE, on board a Falcon 9 rocket, as steam rises seconds ahead of lift-off.

EarthCARE (‘Earth Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer’) a joint mission for ESA and the Japanese space agency JAXA, launched on board a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Falcon’s first stage successfully returned to the launch site.

EarthCARE is orbiting Earth every 90 minutes and has begun its calibration-validation phase. The data its four instruments collect almost simultaneously from a column of atmosphere will be available for use in around six months. It will provide better understanding of the role clouds and aerosols play in reflecting incoming solar radiation back into space and trapping infrared radiation emitted from Earth’s surface, including reducing uncertainty in climate models.

The satellite was the brainchild of Reading University Professor Anthony Illingworth 30 years ago and was adopted by ESA in 2004.

European Co-Chair of the EarthCARE Joint ESA-JAXA Mission Advisory Group Robin Hogan, Senior Scientist at ECMWF and Professor of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Reading, said: “We can improve weather and climate predictions with the data from this mission. There’s a huge amount of exciting science that awaits us.”

EarthCARE’s four instruments

ESA describes EarthCARE as the most complex satellite in its Earth Explorer programme due to its combination of four instruments.

Multi-Spectral Imager – developed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. Its visible and infra-red images will set the overall spatial context for EarthCARE’s active instruments (which see only a narrow curtain in the centre –see images below).

Broad Band Radiometer (BBR) – designed and developed by a UK consortium led by Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor. It will measure Earth’s reflected solar radiation and outgoing infrared radiation with three fixed viewing directions pointing ahead, down and behind.

ATmospheric LIDar (ATLID) – the second European spaceborne ultraviolet lidar after the wind sensing spacecraft Aeolus. It will provide profiles of aerosols, thin clouds and the top of thick clouds.

Cloud Profiling Radar – developed by JAXA and National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Tokyo. A 94GHz cloud radar with Doppler capability that will provide vertical profiles of clouds and precipitation to gain detailed insight into weather systems structure.