EarthCARE team completes launch rehearsal
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The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced the completion of the rehearsal for the launch of the Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) satellite, a mission to enhance our understanding of the Earth’s climate system.
The EarthCARE satellite will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, marking a collaborative effort between ESA, the mission’s industrial partners and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
EarthCARE is the most advanced of ESA’s Earth Explorer missions, aiming to provide a comprehensive analysis of the interplay between clouds, aerosols and the Earth’s radiation budget/balance.
The radiation budget is “the overall balance between incoming energy from the Sun and outgoing reflected (shortwave) and thermal (longwave) energy from Earth,” says ESA. “This balance is crucial for maintaining a relatively stable temperature on our planet and is influenced by various factors, including clouds, aerosols, greenhouse gases and surface properties.”
The mission’s primary objective is to quantify “cloud-aerosol -radiation interactions” in order to include them in numerical weather and climate prediction models.
The satellite is equipped with four cutting-edge instruments designed to make a variety of different measurements to offer a holistic view of the atmosphere’s dynamics i.e. the complex cloud-aerosol-radiation interactions.
The Atmospheric Lidar (ATLID) will measure the vertical profile of aerosols and clouds in the planet’s atmosphere, while the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR), provided by JAXA, will let the satellite observe the internal structure of clouds. The third instrument – the Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) – will provide, unlike ATLID and CPR, “a much wider field of view,” and the Broadband Radiometer will measure Earth-reflected solar and the outgoing Earth-emitted thermal radiation.
By simultaneously utilizing these instruments, EarthCARE will provide unprecedented data, improving the accuracy of cloud development models and enhancing our understanding of the interactions between clouds, aerosols and precipitation. This data is expected to significantly contribute to the improvement of climate models and support numerical weather prediction.
The EarthCARE satellite will orbit at an altitude of 393 km in a polar orbit, crossing the equator in the early afternoon, offering excellent light and less and least possible glint for the instruments. The success of the mission, which is scheduled to launch at 12:20 AM CEST, May 29th or 3:20 PM PDT, May 28th, represents a leap forward in our ability to monitor and predict climate-related changes.
Featured photo:
CREDIT ESA / J. Mai
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