Congratulations to UK and French teams behind newest mission! The MicroCarb climate satellite has launched on board an ArianeSpace Vega-C rocket. Read more about the UK expertise behind the mission.
Congratulations to UK and French teams behind newest mission!
10 years of innovation and teamwork between UK and French experts resulted in success in the early hours of Saturday morning (July 26) when the MicroCarb climate satellite reached its 650km orbit above Earth.
Now begins the careful process of calibration and validation as Europe’s first dedicated carbon dioxide monitoring satellite’s infrared spectrometer is brought into commission, preparing to send back measurements.
MicroCarb was launched on a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
Emissions monitoring over cities
It will orbit 650km above Earth, using revolutionary city-scanning technology to map CO₂ emissions across urban areas at an unprecedented 2km x 2km resolution, which has never before been achieved from space. This level of data will help guide nations’ climate policies and actions, supporting them to achieve the Paris Agreement targets they signed up to in 2016 as cities are responsible for more than 70% of global CO2 output.
Discovering more about natural carbon sinks
MicroCarb will also monitor natural carbon sinks such as forests and oceans, enhancing scientific understanding of how much carbon is absorbed by the planet and where. This data will be essential for improving national carbon inventories and identifying new opportunities for carbon capture and storage (CCS), including commercial products and services.
Scientists are also excited about the satellite’s ability to detect solar-induced fluorescence (SIF). This is seen as a faint glow emitted by plants during photosynthesis which can be analysed to show information about the health of plants which support applications to monitor crop health and drought risk.
French-UK collaboration behind MicroCarb
With £15m funding from the UK Government, MicroCarb is a ground-breaking French-UK joint mission, will join the international greenhouse gas (GHG) virtual constellation of satellites, significantly enhancing global climate monitoring capabilities.
The mission is yet another example of UK Government, academia and industry working together that will deliver global benefits and in a ground-breaking collaboration, the result of a bilateral agreement between the French space agency, CNES, and the UK Space Agency.
Having designed and built the satellite together, scientists, engineers and technicians continue to work together to ensure MicroCarb delivers the information the will help to address the impacts of climate change globally. In the UK these are led by the National Centre for Earth Observation and NPL (National Physical Laboratory).
Dr Paul Bate, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, has welcomed the successful launch. He said: “Satellites like MicroCarb are our eyes in the sky. Over half of the critical data we use to understand climate change comes from space, and MicroCarb’s successful launch is a major leap forward in our ability to track carbon emissions and absorption with unprecedented accuracy, from the world’s cities to its forests and oceans.
“Backed by UK and French investment and expertise, it’s a proud moment for both our space sectors and a powerful example of international collaboration in action.”
Watch Arianespace’s coverage of MicroCarb’s launch into space.
Space4Climate’s plain language introduction to MicroCarb
Read more:
Revolutionary city-scanning satellite from UK-France partnership set to transform climate monitoring – UK Space Agency
Launch of MicroCarb mission marks a new era in carbon monitoring – NPL