Aerosol satellite primed for complex Earth Explorer mission
The Airbus-built EarthCARE (Earth Clouds, Aerosols, and Radiation Explorer) spacecraft has left Munich, Germany, and being flown to a launch site in Vandenberg, California.
EarthCARE will be launched in May on a Falcon 9 rocket.
Airbus says this is the most complex Earth Explorer mission in the European Space Agency's FutureEO programme.
The new satellite missions will quantify how clouds and aerosols heat and cool the Earth's atmosphere through reflecting solar radiation back to space and trapping infrared radiation from the Earth's surface.
The spacecraft was developed, built and tested by experts from 15 European countries as well as Japan and Canada.
The four instruments providing vertical profiles of aerosols and clouds are:
- ATLID - the second spaceborne ultraviolet lidar
- A broad-band radiometer developed by ESA
- A multi-spectral imager
- A cloud profiling radar
EarthCARE will circle Earth in a sun-synchronous 400km polar orbit crossing the equator in early afternoon to optimise daylight.
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