Daedalus: a Candidate ESA Earth Explorer Mission for the Exploration of the Lower Thermosphere-Ionosphere

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodoros Sarris ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Lower Thermosphere ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Mission Design ◽  
Ion Drift ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Explorer Mission ◽  
Phase 0 ◽  
Electric And Magnetic Fields ◽  
The Status ◽  
Precipitation Estimates

<p>The Daedalus mission has been proposed to the European Space Agency (ESA) in response to the call for ideas for the Earth Observation programme’s Earth Explorers. It was selected in 2018 as one of three candidates for Earth Explorer 10, and is currently undergoing a Phase-0 Science and Requirements Consolidation Study. The goal of the mission is to quantify the key electrodynamic processes that determine the structure and composition of the Lower Thermosphere-Ionosphere (LTI), focusing in particular on processes related to ion-neutral coupling. Daedalus will perform in-situ measurements of plasma density and temperature, ion drift, neutral density and wind, ion and neutral composition, electric and magnetic fields and precipitating particles. An innovative preliminary mission design allows Daedalus to perform these measurements down to altitudes of 140 km and below. These measurements will quantify the amount of energy locally deposited in the upper atmosphere via Joule heating and energetic particle precipitation, estimates of which currently vary by orders of magnitude between models. At the same time, the instrumentation of Daedalus will enable exploration of the variability and dynamics of the LTI, as well as science questions related to connections between the LTI and the atmosphere below. Daedalus will thus study the most under-explored region of the Earth's environment, the "agnostophere", which is the gateway between Earth’s atmosphere and space. In this presentation an overview of the Daedalus Mission Concept will be given, including the status of the ongoing Phase-0 Study.</p>

scholarly journals Daedalus: A Low-Flying Spacecraft for the Exploration of the Lower Thermosphere - Ionosphere

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodoros E. Sarris ◽  
Elsayed R. Talaat ◽  
Minna Palmroth ◽  
Iannis Dandouras ◽  
Errico Armandillo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lower Thermosphere ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Upper Atmosphere ◽  
Mission Design ◽  
Earth’S Atmosphere ◽  
Ion Drift ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Electric And Magnetic Fields ◽  
Precipitation Estimates ◽  
Earth's Atmosphere

Abstract. The Daedalus mission has been proposed to the European Space Agency (ESA) in response to the call for ideas for the Earth Observation programme's 10th Earth Explorer. It was selected in 2018 as one of three candidates for a Phase-0 feasibility study. The goal of the mission is to quantify the key electrodynamic processes that determine the structure and composition of the upper atmosphere, the gateway between the Earth’s atmosphere and space. An innovative preliminary mission design allows Daedalus to access electrodynamics processes down to altitudes of 150 km and below. Daedalus will perform in-situ measurements of plasma density and temperature, ion drift, neutral density and wind, ion and neutral composition, electric and magnetic fields and precipitating particles. These measurements will unambiguously quantify the amount of energy deposited in the upper atmosphere during active and quiet geomagnetic times via Joule heating and energetic particle precipitation, estimates of which currently vary by orders of magnitude between models. An innovation of the Daedalus preliminary mission concept is that it includes the release of sub-satellites at low altitudes: combined with the main spacecraft, these sub-satellites will provide multi-point measurements throughout the Lower Thermosphere-Ionosphere region, down to altitudes below 120 km, in the heart of the most under-explored region in the Earth's atmosphere. This paper describes Daedalus as originally proposed to ESA.

scholarly journals Daedalus: a low-flying spacecraft for in situ exploration of the lower thermosphere–ionosphere

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodoros E. Sarris ◽  
Elsayed R. Talaat ◽  
Minna Palmroth ◽  
Iannis Dandouras ◽  
Errico Armandillo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lower Thermosphere ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Upper Atmosphere ◽  
Mission Design ◽  
Earth’S Atmosphere ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Observation Methods ◽  
Precipitation Estimates ◽  
Earth's Atmosphere

Abstract. The Daedalus mission has been proposed to the European Space Agency (ESA) in response to the call for ideas for the Earth Observation program's 10th Earth Explorer. It was selected in 2018 as one of three candidates for a phase-0 feasibility study. The goal of the mission is to quantify the key electrodynamic processes that determine the structure and composition of the upper atmosphere, the gateway between the Earth's atmosphere and space. An innovative preliminary mission design allows Daedalus to access electrodynamics processes down to altitudes of 150 km and below. Daedalus will perform in situ measurements of plasma density and temperature, ion drift, neutral density and wind, ion and neutral composition, electric and magnetic fields, and precipitating particles. These measurements will unambiguously quantify the amount of energy deposited in the upper atmosphere during active and quiet geomagnetic times via Joule heating and energetic particle precipitation, estimates of which currently vary by orders of magnitude between models and observation methods. An innovation of the Daedalus preliminary mission concept is that it includes the release of subsatellites at low altitudes: combined with the main spacecraft, these subsatellites will provide multipoint measurements throughout the lower thermosphere–ionosphere (LTI) region, down to altitudes below 120 km, in the heart of the most under-explored region in the Earth's atmosphere. This paper describes Daedalus as originally proposed to the ESA.

scholarly journals The European Space Agency’s Earth Explorer Mission CryoSat: measuring variability in the cryosphere

2004 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 313-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark R. Drinkwater ◽  
Richard Francis ◽  
Guy Ratier ◽  
Duncan J. Wingham
Keyword(s):  
European Space Agency ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Radar Altimeter ◽  
Operating Characteristics ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Explorer Mission ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Ku Band

AbstractCryoSat is currently being prepared for a 2005 launch as the first European Space Agency Earth Explorer Opportunity mission. It is a dedicated cryospheric mission equipped with a Ku-band SIRAL (SAR/Interferometric Radar ALtimeter), whose primary objectives are to measure the variability and trends in the mass of the Arctic sea-ice cover and large terrestrial ice sheets. In this paper, an overview is provided of the mission and of the measurement characteristics of the new SIRAL instrument. Examples of data acquired on recent preparatory campaigns are presented, illustrating the operating characteristics of the key SIRAL modes. Preparatory plans for calibration and validation of CryoSat data are described.

Aeolus: ESA’s wind mission. Status and future challenges

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommaso Parrinello ◽  
Anne Grete Straume ◽  
Jonas Von Bismark ◽  
Sebastian Bley ◽  
Viet Duc Tran ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
World Wide ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Weather Forecast ◽  
Horizontal Line ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
The Status ◽  
Other World ◽  
Atmospheric Backscatter

<p>The European Space Agency (ESA)’s wind mission, Aeolus, was launched on 22 August 2018. It is a member of the ESA Earth Explorer family and its main objective is to demonstrate the potential of Doppler wind Lidars in space for improving weather forecast and to understand the role of atmospheric dynamics in climate variability. Aeolus carries a single instrument called ALADIN: a high sophisticated spectral resolution Doppler wind Lidar which operates at 355 which is the first of its kind to be flown in space.</p><p>Aeolus provides profiles of single horizontal line-of-sight winds (primary product) in near-real-time (NRT), and profiles of atmospheric backscatter and extinction. The instrument samples the atmosphere from about 30 km down to the Earth’s surface, or down to optically thick clouds. The required precision of the wind observations is 1-2.5 m/s in the troposphere and 3-5 m/s in the stratosphere while the systematic error requirement be less than 0.7 m/s. The mission spin-off product includes information about aerosol and cloud layers. The satellite flies in a polar dusk/dawn orbit (6 am/pm local time), providing ~16 orbits per 24 hours with an orbit repeat cycle of 7 days. Global scientific payload data acquisition is guaranteed with the combined usage of Svalbard and Troll X-band receiving stations.</p><p>After almost three years in orbit and despite performance issues related to its instrument ALADIN, Aeolus has achieved most of its objectives. Positive impact on the weather forecast has been demonstrated by multiple NWP centres world-wide with four European meteorological centres now are assimilating Aeolus winds operationally. Other world-wide meteo centers wull start to assimilate data in 2021. The status of the Aeolus mission will be presented, including overall performance, planned operations and exploitation. Scope of the paper is also to inform about the programmatic highlights and future challenges.</p>

Sentinel 5 Precursor: Status of TROPOMI and the Operational Data Products

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pepijn Veefkind ◽  
Ilse Aben ◽  
Angelika Dehn ◽  
Quintus Kleipool ◽  
Diego Loyola ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Near Infrared ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Atmospheric Composition ◽  
Spectral Bands ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Swir Band ◽  
Data Products ◽  
The Status ◽  
New Research ◽  
Operational Data

<p>The Copernicus Sentinel 5 Precursor (S5P) is the first of the Sentinel satellites dedicated to the observation of the atmospheric composition, for climate, air quality and ozone monitoring applications. The payload of S5P is TROPOMI (TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument), a spectrometer covering spectral bands in ultraviolet, visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared, which was developed by The Netherlands in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA). TROPOMI has a wide swath of 2600 km, enabling daily global coverage, in combination with a high spatial resolution of about 3.5 x 5.5 km<sup>2</sup> (7 x 5.5 km<sup>2</sup> for the SWIR band).</p><p>S5P was successfully launched on 13 October 2017 and following a six-month commissioning phase, the operational data stream started at the end of April 2018. All of the TROPOMI operational data products have been released, with the exception of the ozone profile, which is planned to become available with the next major release[AR1]  of the Level 1B data. In addition to the operational data products, new research products are also being developed.</p><p>In this contribution, the status of TROPOMI and its data products will be presented. Results for observations of recent events will be provided, along with an outlook on the next release of the data products.</p><div> <div> <div> </div> </div> </div>

ESA’s Wind Lidar Mission Aeolus – Instrument Performance and Stability

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Kanitz ◽  
Benjamin Witschas ◽  
Uwe Marksteiner ◽  
Thomas Flament ◽  
Michael Rennie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Incidence Angle ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Positive Outcome ◽  
Doppler Lidar ◽  
Energy Redistribution ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Explorer Mission ◽  
Wind Lidar ◽  
The Impact

<p>The European Space Agency, ESA deployed the first Doppler wind lidar in space within its Earth Explorer Mission Aeolus in August 2018. After the initial commissioning of the satellite and the single payload ALADIN, the mission has started to demonstrate the capability of Doppler lidar to measure wind from space. In order to provide the best Aeolus wind product possible, detailed monitoring of the instrument is crucial for analysis of system health, but also for the assessment of measurement performance and data product calibration. Within the last 1.2 years the different instrument modes to assess instrument and laser health, as well as the nominal wind processing indicated longterm instrument drifts. The laser beam profile has been monitored and showed an energy redistribution within the beam. The line of sight has slowly drifted, resulting in a change of incidence angle at spectrometer level. The impact of these observed drifts on the wind product are compensated on demand by updates of dedicated ground processing calibration files. This contribution will provide an overview about the Aeolus instrument modes and the observed stability that are needed to provide the Aeolus wind product. The current Aeolus performance has been assessed by various Numerical Weather Prediction centers. The positive outcome is represented by ECMWF’s decision to start using Aeolus data operationally on 9<sup>th</sup> January 2020.</p>

The status of European Space Agency supported detector developments

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Nelms ◽  
Kyriaki Minoglou ◽  
Alessandra Ciapponi ◽  
Thibaut Prod'homme ◽  
Roland Meynart ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
European Space Agency ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
The Status

scholarly journals Retrieval of O<sub>2</sub>(<sup>1</sup>Σ) and O<sub>2</sub>(<sup>1</sup>Δ) volume emission rates in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere using SCIAMACHY MLT limb scans

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 473-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amirmahdi Zarboo ◽  
Stefan Bender ◽  
John P. Burrows ◽  
Johannes Orphal ◽  
Miriam Sinnhuber
Keyword(s):  
Atomic Oxygen ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Lower Thermosphere ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Emission Rates ◽  
Heating Rates ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Volume Emission ◽  
Mesosphere And Lower Thermosphere ◽  
Scanning Imaging

Abstract. We present the retrieved volume emission rates (VERs) from the airglow of both the daytime and twilight O2(1Σ) band and O2(1Δ) band emissions in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). The SCanning Imaging Absorption SpectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) onboard the European Space Agency Envisat satellite observes upwelling radiances in limb-viewing geometry during its special MLT mode over the range 50–150 km. In this study we use the limb observations in the visible (595–811 nm) and near-infrared (1200–1360 nm) bands. We have investigated the daily mean latitudinal distributions and the time series of the retrieved VER in the altitude range from 53 to 149 km. The maximal observed VERs of O2(1Δ) during daytime are typically 1 to 2 orders of magnitude larger than those of O2(1Σ). The latter peaks at around 90 km, whereas the O2(1Δ) emissivity decreases with altitude, with the largest values at the lower edge of the observations (about 53 km). The VER values in the upper mesosphere (above 80 km) are found to depend on the position of the sun, with pronounced high values occurring during summer for O2(1Δ). O2(1Σ) emissions show additional high values at polar latitudes during winter and spring. These additional high values are presumably related to the downwelling of atomic oxygen after large sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs). Accurate measurements of the O2(1Σ) and O2(1Δ) airglow, provided that the mechanism of their production is understood, yield valuable information about both the chemistry and dynamics in the MLT. For example, they can be used to infer the amounts and distribution of ozone, solar heating rates, and temperature in the MLT.

scholarly journals ATmospheric LIDar (ATLID): European Space Agency Instrument Ready to Measure Aerosols and Thin Clouds in Atmosphere

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
João Pereira do Carmo ◽  
Geraud de Villele ◽  
Kotska Wallace ◽  
Alain Lefebvre ◽  
Kaustav Ghose ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rayleigh Scattering ◽  
Performance Test ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Laser Pulses ◽  
Backscatter Signal ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Explorer Mission ◽  
Thin Cloud ◽  
Atmospheric Backscatter ◽  
Along Track

ATLID (ATmospheric LIDar) is the atmospheric backscatter LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) on board of the EarthCARE (Earth Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer) mission, the sixth Earth Explorer Mission of the ESA (European Space Agency) Living Planet Programme [1-5]. ATLID&rsquo;s purpose is to provide vertical profiles of optically thin cloud and aerosol layers, as well as the altitude of cloud boundaries [6-10]. In order to achieve this objective ATLID emits short duration laser pulses in the UV, at a repetition rate of 51 Hz, while pointing in a near nadir direction along track of the satellite trajectory. The atmospheric backscatter signal is then collected by its 620 mm aperture telescope, filtered through the optics of the instrument focal plane assembly, in order to separate and measure the atmospheric Mie and Rayleigh scattering signals. With the completion of the full instrument assembly in 2019, ATLID has been subjected to an ambient performance test campaign, followed by a successful environmental qualification test campaign, including performance calibration and characterization in thermal vacuum conditions. In this paper the design and operational principle of ATLID is recalled and the major performance test results are presented, addressing the main key receiver and emitter characteristics. Finally, the estimated instrument, in-orbit, flight predictions are presented; these indicate compliance of the ALTID instrument performance against its specification and that it will meet its mission science objectives for the EarthCARE mission, to be launched in 2023.

Aeolus: ESA’s wind mission. Status and future challenges

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommaso Parrinello ◽  
Anne Grete Straume ◽  
Jonas Von Bismark ◽  
Sebastian Bley ◽  
Viet Duc Tran ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
European Space Agency ◽  
Weather Forecast ◽  
Horizontal Line ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
The Status ◽  
Phase Calibration ◽  
Wind Lidar ◽  
Operation Phase ◽  
Atmospheric Backscatter

&lt;p&gt;The European Space Agency (ESA)&amp;#8217;s wind mission, Aeolus, was launched on 22 August 2018. Aeolus is a member of the ESA Earth Explorer family and its main objective is to demonstrate the potential of Doppler wind Lidars in space for improving weather forecast and to understand the role of atmospheric dynamics in climate variability. Aeolus carries a single instrument called ALADIN: a high sophisticated spectral resolution Doppler wind Lidar which operates at 355 which is the first of its kind to be flown in space. It&amp;#160;provides profiles of single horizontal line-of-sight winds (primary product) in near-real-time (NRT), and profiles of atmospheric backscatter and extinction. The instrument samples the atmosphere from about 30 km down to the Earth&amp;#8217;s surface, or down to optically thick clouds. The required precision of the wind observations is 1-2.5 m/s in the troposphere and 3-5 m/s in the stratosphere while the systematic error requirement be less than 0.7 m/s. The mission spin-off product includes information about aerosol and cloud layers. The satellite flies in a polar dusk/dawn orbit (6 am/pm local time), providing ~16 orbits per 24 hours with an orbit repeat cycle of 7 days. Global scientific payload data acquisition is guaranteed with the combined usage of Svalbard and Troll X-band receiving stations.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The status of the Aeolus mission will be provided, including its performance assessment, planned operations and exploitation in the near future. This comprises the outcome of the instrument in its early operation phase, calibration and validation activities and a general review of the main scientific findings. Scope of the paper is also to inform about the programmatic highlights and future challenges.&lt;/p&gt;

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document