Less then a month after its deployment in orbit, the EarthCARE mission unveiled the first ground-breaking data produced by the satellite. On June 26, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) published the first image captured by one of the spacecraft’s sophisticated instruments, which reveals the inner structure and dynamics of a cloud, as never before.
Launched on May 29, on top of a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg, EarthCARE carries innovative instruments to shed light on the role of clouds and aerosols in atmospheric temperature changes, thus providing crucial information on climate change.
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First images from the heart of clouds
The first images were captured by the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR), developed by JAXA, over the Pacific Ocean on June 13. This instrument allows EarthCare to observe the internal structure of clouds, operating in the millimeter-wavelength range. The CPR can study the distribution, size, and velocity of particles, providing valuable data on cloud formation and dissipation.
First data from the three European instruments on board are expected in the coming weeks and months.
The image on the left reveals the vertically-resolved concentration of particles inside the cloud, showing a higher concentration in the innermost part. In the picture on the right, particle velocity is represented. Slower particles at the top of the cloud are ice crystals and snowflakes. At lower altitudes, higher velocities indicate rain formation.
The radar used its Doppler velocity capability to measure the vertical speed of motion of ice, snow, and rain. This is the first time such measurements have been taken from space.
Both images highlight the altitude of 5 km where ice and snow melt, turning into liquid water, thus marking a “boundary” of the zero-degree Celsius temperature.
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Four state-of-the-art instruments
To achieve its scientific objectives, EarthCARE is equipped with three additional key instruments besides the Japanese CPR:
- The atmospheric lidar is designed to inspect the distribution of properties of aerosols and clouds by emitting light pulses and analyzing the reflected signals.
- The multispectral imager provides a much wider field of view to give context to the profile measurements of the lidar and radar. It captures high-resolution images in multiple spectral bands in the visible and infrared spectrum, allowing scientists to differentiate between various types of clouds, aerosols, and Earth’s surface.
- The broadband radiometer calculates the amount of reflected solar radiation and the thermal radiation emitted by Earth. It is also known as the planet’s energy balance, crucial in the dynamics of global temperature rise.
EarthCARE mission
EarthCARE is one of the most ambitious missions ever developed by ESA, certainly the most complex of all the Earth Explorer missions, part of the Agency’s FutureEO program. It also confirms a strong international collaboration between the European and Japanese agencies.
Conceived in 2004, EarthCARE will help us better predict the development of climate change. Indeed, the main objective is to include cloud-aerosol-radiation interactions in climate and numerical weather prediction models.
The satellite was designed and built by a consortium of more than 75 companies, with Airbus as the prime contractor. EarthCARE is orbiting our planet at an altitude of 393 km, in a Sun-synchronous orbit. The spacecraft is dominated by the large CPR antenna, which is 2.5 m across.
A long solar panel, with a total area of 21 square meters, provides the significant energy required by the instruments, exceeding 2500 W. The mission has an expected operational lifetime of approximately three years.
ESA’s Flight Operations Segment, at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Germany, is in charge of the satellite and orbit control. ESA’s Payload Data Ground Segment, at the Centre for Earth Observation (ESRIN) in Italy, is instead responsible for the acquisition, processing, and archiving of science data.
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