Ground-breaking French-UK climate change satellite mission showcases the UK’s world-leading carbon Earth observation capability.
UPDATED July, 2024
The MicroCarb satellite – a joint UK Space Agency and French space agency (CNES) climate mission – is complete and in storage in France ready for launch.
After spending a year undergoing assembly and integration processes, followed by rigorous testing in the RAL Space clean room, MicroCarb is stored at Thales Alenia Space’s facility in Toulouse ready to be assigned a launch date, due to be in 2025.
The UK Space Agency has invested £15m in the joint climate satellite mission, in which the UK is partnering with CNES.
MicroCarb will be the first European satellite designed to measure carbon fluxes on Earth by precisely measuring carbon dioxide (CO2) from all around the world – the main greenhouse gas caused by human activity.
The image below shows MicroCarb being delivered from France to the UK in a specialist container in December 2022.
The data it sends back to climate scientists will play an important role in global efforts to measure how much carbon is being emitted on Earth by natural processes and how much by human activities.
The instrument was built by Airbus France, Space4Climate members the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) provided the pre-flight calibration facility before MicroCarb was shipped to the UK in December 2022, where Thales Alenia Space completed the satellite assembly, integration and testing at RAL Space.
Dr Paul Bate, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said: “Having more accurate knowledge of how much carbon the world’s forests and oceans absorb will provide the reliable information needed to take decisions on tackling climate change.”
MicroCarb will also enable measurement of human-influenced emissions, providing validation of inventory estimates.
- Read reaction from UK National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) scientists working on MicroCarb, Dr Rob Parker (University of Leicester) and Prof Paul Palmer (University of Edinburgh) here.
- Watch the latest video from the UK Space Agency as MicroCarb leaves the UK.
- On April 20, 2023, leading emissions scientists and climate satellite experts from the UK met to see the French-UK MicroCarb satellite undergo testing. Read the full story here.
- In December 2022 MicroCarb arrived at RAL Space ready for assembly, integration and testing (AIT). Read the press release from the UK Space Agency.
Mission facts
- MicroCarb will be the first European satellite dedicated to measuring Carbon Dioxide (CO2) – the main greenhouse gas (GHG) caused by human activity and a key contributor to climate change
- The UK is partnering with France’s space agency, the Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales (CNES, the French space agency) to deliver the mission
- MicroCarb will monitor Earth’s atmospheric CO2 from space with extreme precision and detect the changes associated with surface emissions and uptake across the world from our cities and forests to our oceans
- MicroCarb has a special city-scanning observing mode that will allow us, for the first time, to map CO2 emissions across cities which are a large contributor to global emissions
- Data from MicroCarb will help us to monitor international progress in meeting the Paris Agreement climate target of limiting global surface warming to well below 2ºC of pre-industrial temperatures
- The satellite is due for launch in early summer 2025
- MicroCarb will become part of the international GHG virtual constellation of satellites.
What are the benefits?
- The mission is increasing capacity in the UK space sector to design and build complex space instruments and technologically advanced satellites
- Measuring how much carbon the world’s forests and oceans absorb will help scientists to understand and exploit the natural processes that absorb CO2 and it will inform forecasts of the impact of our changing climate on those carbon sinks, for instance, for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
- MicroCarb’s data will contribute to global efforts to measure how much carbon is being emitted by natural processes and how much by human activities (anthropogenic climate change) – the Global Stocktake
- Having more accurate knowledge of the carbon cycle and emissions when taking decisions on tackling climate change.
Applications
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is the principal greenhouse gas driving global warming. The climate response to human emissions is also changing over time with the increased atmospheric concentrations, changing the proportions of carbon the natural environment (vegetation and the oceans) is taking up within the climate cycle.
Accurately measuring and monitoring carbonemissions and absorption is vital in being able to manage and to limit climate change and is a key focus of COP each year – the United Nations climate change conference.
The MicroCarb satellite will carry an instrument that measures finely-resolved absorption bands of CO2 in reflected sunlight. Once in orbit MicroCarb will deliver some of the most precise atmospheric CO2 measurements to date. In particular, MicroCarb includes a purpose-built city-scanning observing mode that will map gradients of CO2 across cities at a fine spatial resolution of 2 x 2km2.
Data from MicroCarb will help to monitor how well Paris Agreement carbon targets are being met. It will also, for example, alert scientists when ecosystems alter their ability to absorb carbon.
Its highly detailed and accurate measurements can facilitate effective management and will inform policy decisions for governments around the world, scientific research and space-enabled technology for climate services.
UK expertise
MicroCarb puts the UK at the heart of a major European space mission and strengthens our position in space-based carbon monitoring. UK organisations and scientists are making crucial contributions from satellite payload to quality assurance and analysis of the data – more information in the UK Partners section.
Thales Alenia Space undertook the Assembly, Integration and Test (AIT) at RAL Space’s clean room facilities at Harwell, Oxfordshire.
Experts at NPL are providing critical pre-launch and onboard calibration hardware. This calibration is key to the success of the mission and the value of the scientific exploitation of climate data the satellite will send back.
Devising and launching the satellite represents just a segment in the supply chain required from sensor to data products that can be used to inform decisions.
Staff at GMV UK are responsible for designing, implementing and quality assuring the algorithms and operational processors for a number of the carbon dioxide data products. The operational processors convert the raw science data generated by the sensing instrument on the satellite into values that can then be used to form climate datasets.
GMV UK are also responsible for ensuring the operational processors for this mission can integrate with the processing infrastructure of mission partner CNES, as well as with those of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).
Drawing on world-leading expertise at the universities of Leicester and Edinburgh, the MicroCarb team will translate atmospheric CO2 observation into maps that show carbon emissions and uptake (carbon sources and sinks). The work will fundamentally improve current understanding of the carbon cycle and help pave the way towards a measurement verification system to monitor carbon emissions from human activities and natural processes.
Insights
Dr Paul Bate, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency:
“Over half of the critical measurements on climate change rely on satellite data and the information from MicroCarb will be hugely important. Having more accurate knowledge of how much carbon the world’s forests and oceans absorb will provide the reliable information needed to take decisions on tackling climate change.
“This mission shows what can be achieved when we collaborate with international partners like CNES, bringing the best of our skills and expertise together.”
Dr Sarah Beardsley, Director of STFC RAL Space:
“Achieving Net Zero is one of the most pressing challenges we currently face, and a vital part in reaching our collective goal is to develop systems that can accurately and reliably monitor carbon emissions.
“I’m incredibly proud that STFC RAL Space has played such an important role in the development of MicroCarb.
“The pointing and calibration system that we’ve developed for this mission will enable scientists to analyse the carbon cycle in new levels of fine detail, giving us a fuller and clearer understanding of the processes driving climate change.”
