 EarthCARE being prepared for shipment to launch site | |
| Mission type | Earth observation |
|---|---|
| Operator | ESA / JAXA / NICT |
| COSPAR ID | 2024-101A |
| SATCAT no. | 59908 |
| Website | EarthCare on esa.int |
| Mission duration | 3 years (planned) 1 year, 9 months, 1 day (in progress) |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Bus | AstroBus-L |
| Manufacturer | EADS Astrium |
| Launch mass | 2350 kg[1] |
| Dry mass | 2037 kg[1] |
| Dimensions | 2.5 x 19 m |
| Power | 1700 W |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 28 May 2024 22:20 UTC[2] |
| Rocket | Falcon 9 Block 5[3] |
| Launch site | Vandenberg SLC-4E |
| Contractor | SpaceX |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Sun-synchronous |
| Altitude | 393 km |
| Inclination | 97,1° |
| Period | 92,5 minutes |
| Repeat interval | 25 days |
| Epoch | Planned |
| Transponders | |
| Band | S Band (TT&C support) X band (science data acquisition) |
| Bandwidth | 2 Mbit/s download (S Band) 150 Mbit/s download (X Band) 64 kbit/s upload (S Band) |
| Instruments | |
| ATLID: ATmospheric LIDar CPR: Cloud Profiling Radar MSI: Multi-Spectral Imager BBR: Broad-Band Radiometer | |
| |
EarthCARE (derived from Earth Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer), nicknamed Hakuryū (Japanese for "white dragon"),[4] is a joint European/Japanese (ESA / JAXA / NICT) satellite, the sixth of ESA's Earth Explorer Programme.[1][5] The main goal of the mission is the observation and characterization of clouds and aerosols as well as measuring the reflected solar radiation and the infrared radiation emitted from Earth's surface and atmosphere.[6][7][8]
Background
As the prime contractor, Astrium was responsible for the satellite's design, development and integration.[9] Design and construction began in early 2009.[10] As of January 2011, the total budget for the project was £500 million (€590 million/US$810 million).[10] A significant proportion of the project was manufactured in the UK, the main structure of the spacecraft was built by RUAG Space in Switzerland and subsequently completed in Astrium's Stevenage facility, while one of the instruments was made in Sevenoaks by SSTL and another in Bristol, Somerset by SEA Group Ltd, now part of Thales Alenia Space UK.[10]
Mission
The aims of the mission are to improve understanding of the cloud, radiative and aerosol processes that affect the Earth's climate.[11] The mission is providing a picture of the 3-dimensional spatial and the temporal structure of the radiative flux field at the top of the atmosphere, within the atmosphere and at the Earth's surface. The high-performance lidar and radar technology, plus the synergistic use of the different remote sensing techniques on board EarthCARE, is delivering datasets allowing scientists to study the relationship of clouds, aerosols, and radiation at accuracy levels that will significantly improve our understanding of these highly-variable parameters. The mission is providing this information to improve predictions about the weather and future climate.[12]
Science
The satellite is making measurements useful for a better understanding of the Earth's thermal and solar radiation balance. In particular, a combination of active (lidar and radar) and passive (radiometers and imagers) instruments enable EarthCARE to simultaneously measure the vertical and horizontal distribution of clouds and atmospheric aerosols along with top-of-atmosphere (TOA) long- and short-wave fluxes.
The spacecraft features four distinct instruments:[1]
- ATmospheric LIDar (ATLID) - ESA / Airbus space Toulouse - 354.8 nm, high-spectral resolution and depolarisation (aerosols).
- Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) - JAXA / NICT - 36 dBZ sensitivity, 500 m horizontal and 100 m vertical sampling resolution, Doppler capability (clouds). Operating at 94.05 GHz.[13]
- Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) - ESA - 7 channels, 150 km swath, 500 m pixel resolution (clouds and aerosols).
- Broad-Band Radiometer (BBR) - ESA - 2 channels, 3 views (nadir, fore and aft) (radiations).
Timeline
Development
- In May 2008, ESA signed a contract worth €263 million (£220 million/US$360 million) with EADS subsidiary Astrium.[9]
- In early 2009, design and construction began.[10]
- In September 2014, ESA and JAXA held a joined EarthCARE International Science Workshop.[14]
- From 2014 to 2015, integration of the instruments took place.[14]
- In 2015, the launch was postponed to 2018 due to problems with lidar development.[15]
- On May 29, 2024, at 00:20 CEST, EarthCARE was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.[16][17]
In orbit
- In 2024 and 2025, CNES was conducting aerial campaigns with stratospheric baloons and aircraft over Cape Verde and France, in order to validate EarthCARE’s observations with data collected closer to surface.[18]
- On 13 January 2025, EarthCARE observed a rare band of type II polar stratospheric clouds stretching cca 3,000 km from Latvia to Greenland at heights of 20–30 km.[19]
- In January 2025, the mission’s first level data stream has been made freely available by ESA after EarthCARE finished its commissioning phase at the end of 2024.[20]
- In March 2025, EarthCARE’s Level-2 data products have been made fully available. These products contain the properties of the atmosphere estimated from the mission’s measurements.[21]
- In April 2025, ECMWF published a detailed report of EarthCARE's early impacts on climate and weather prediction models.[22] The satellite also demonstrated its ability to detect ocean phytoplankton, pointing towards a potential spin-off application for the ATLID instrument.[23][19]
See also
- List of Earth observation satellites
- List of European Space Agency programmes and missions
- ESA's Earth Explorers
References
- ^ a b c d Eisinger, Michael; et al. (26 November 2018). EarthCARE The Earth Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Profiling Satellite Mission (PDF). ATMOS-2018. Salzburg, Austria: ESA. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
- ^ "EarthCARE launched to study role of clouds and aerosols in Earth's climate".
- ^ Foust, Jeff (29 June 2023). "Vega C suffers setback in return to flight effort". SpaceNews. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
- ^ "The White Dragon". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
- ^ "EarthCARE out of the box". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2024-04-18.
- ^ "EarthCARE - Earth Online - ESA". ESA. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
- ^ Illingworth, A. J.; Barker, H. W.; Beljaars, A.; Ceccaldi, M.; Chepfer, H.; Clerbaux, N.; Cole, J.; Delanoë, J.; Domenech, C.; Donovan, D. P.; Fukuda, S.; Hirakata, M.; Hogan, R. J.; Huenerbein, A.; Kollias, P.; Kubota, T.; Nakajima, T.; Nakajima, T. Y.; Nishizawa, T.; Ohno, Y.; Okamoto, H.; Oki, R.; Sato, K.; Satoh, M.; Shephard, M. W.; Velázquez-Blázquez, A.; Wandinger, U.; Wehr, T.; van Zadelhoff, G.-J. (2015). "The EarthCARE Satellite: The Next Step Forward in Global Measurements of Clouds, Aerosols, Precipitation, and Radiation" (PDF). Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 96 (8): 1311–1332. Bibcode:2015BAMS...96.1311I. doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00227.1. ISSN 0003-0007. S2CID 122041433.
- ^ "EarthCARE (Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer)". eoPortal. ESA. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
- ^ a b "EarthCARE satellite contract signed". ESA. 27 May 2008.
- ^ a b c d Amos, Jonathan (18 February 2011). "Europe's Earthcare space laser mission gets go ahead". BBC News. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
- ^ "ESA's cloud, aerosol and radiation mission". ESA. 19 February 2013.
- ^ "Arianespace and ESA announce EarthCare launch contract". Arianespace (Press release). 28 October 2019. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
- ^ "WMO OSCAR | Details for Instrument CPR (Earth-CARE)". space.oscar.wmo.int. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
- ^ a b "ESA Bulletin 161 (1st quarter 2015)" (PDF). Esro / Bulletin Cers/Cecles. ESA: 70. 2015. ISSN 0376-4265. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
- ^ de Selding, Peter B. (22 May 2015). "Cost, Schedule Woes on 2 Lidar Missions Push ESA To Change Contract Procedures". SpaceNews. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
- ^ "EarthCARE is launched". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-03-31.
- ^ "Falcon 9 Block 5 | EarthCARE". nextspaceflight.com. Retrieved 2025-03-31.
- ^ "Mission EarthCARE : une validation scientifique de haut(s) vol(s) !". 2025-04-03.
- ^ a b "5 things we learned in EarthCARE's impressive first year".
- ^ "EarthCARE goes live with data now available to all". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-03-31.
- ^ "Level-2 data boost EarthCARE's profiling power - Earth Online". earth.esa.int. Archived from the original on 2025-03-18. Retrieved 2025-03-31.
- ^ "EarthCARE data begin to make an impact". ECMWF. 2025-04-17. Retrieved 2025-05-31.
- ^ "EarthCARE detects ocean phytoplankton".
External links
- EarthCARE page on ESA website
- EarthCARE on ESA eoPortal
- EarthCARE page on JAXA website
- EarthCARE on JAXA Earth Observation Research Center
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Future missions in italics
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