LIME: the Lunar Irradiance Model of the European Space Agency

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Taylor ◽  
Stefan Adriaensen ◽  
Carlos Toledano ◽  
África Barreto ◽  
Emma Woolliams ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Near Infrared ◽  
Dynamic Range ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Thermal Sensitivity ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Absolute Calibration ◽  
Calibration Source ◽  
Space Agency

<p>Absolute calibration of<strong> </strong>Earth observation sensors is key to ensuring long term stability and interoperability, essential for long term global climate records and forecasts. The Moon provides a photometrically stable calibration source, within the range of the Earth radiometric levels, and is free from atmospheric interference. However, to use this ideal calibration source, one must model the variation of its disk integrated irradiance resulting from changes in Sun-Earth-Moon geometries.</p><p>LIME, the Lunar Irradiance Model of the European Space Agency, is a new lunar irradiance model developed from ground-based observations acquired using a lunar photometer operating from the Izaña Atmospheric Observatory and Teide Peak, Tenerife. Approximately 300 lunar observations acquired between March 2018 and October 2020 currently contribute to the model, which builds on the widely-used ROLO (Robotic Lunar Observatory) model.</p><p>This presentation will outline the strategy used to derive LIME. First, the instrument was calibrated traceably to SI and characterised to determine its thermal sensitivity and its linearity over the wide dynamic range required. Second, the instrument was installed at the observatory, and nightly observations over a two-hour time window were extrapolated to provide top-of-atmosphere lunar irradiance using the Langley plot method. Third, these observations were combined to derive the model. Each of these steps includes a metrologically rigorous uncertainty analysis.</p><p>Comparisons to several EO sensors will be presented including Proba-V, Pleiades and Sentinel 3A and 3B, as well as a comparison to GIRO, the GSICS implementation   of the ROLO model. Initial results indicate LIME predicts 3% - 5% higher disk integrated lunar irradiance than the GIRO/ROLO model for the visible and near-infrared channels. The model has an expanded (k = 2) absolute radiometric uncertainty of ~2%, and it is expected that planned observations until at least 2024 will further constrain the model in subsequent updates.</p>

scholarly journals Radiometric accuracy and stability of sentinel-1A determined using point targets

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 538-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kersten Schmidt ◽  
Núria Tous Ramon ◽  
Marco Schwerdt
Keyword(s):  
European Space Agency ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Calibration Factor ◽  
Synthetic Aperture ◽  
Absolute Calibration ◽  
Long Term Stability ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Imaging Mode ◽  
German Aerospace

ABSTRACTSentinel-1A is a space-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system developed in the frame of the Copernicus Program. The German Aerospace Center supported the radiometric and polarimetric calibration of Sentinel-1A by the analysis of point target responses of several acquisitions considering different modes, beams, and polarization channels. An elevation dependent bias, which had not been properly predicted by the used antenna model, was found for all investigated modes. Offsets of up to 2 dB were determined during the SAR instrument calibration phase, in particular, for low and high elevation angles. Therefore, in order to correct these elevation biases, a radiometric refinement was carried out by European Space Agency in November 2015. After that, Sentinel-1A radiometric accuracy and long-term stability were analyzed over a period of 1.5 years. For this period, the absolute calibration factor and the channel imbalance were determined for the main imaging mode. Moreover, a slight drift of the derived calibration factor was observed starting from July 2016. At the same time an anomaly was detected in the front-end affecting several transmit and receive modules in one tile. The radiometric behavior of Sentinel-1A should therefore be monitored for a longer period of time, especially to detect potential degradation effects of the SAR instrument.

scholarly journals Helioseismology from space, the SOHO project

1988 ◽  
Vol 123 ◽  
pp. 545-548
Author(s):  
V. Domingo
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Solar Corona ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Heliospheric Observatory ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Cluster A ◽  
Physics Programme

As a cornerstone of its long term plan for space science research, the European Space Agency (ESA) is developing the Solar Terrestrial Physics Programme that consists of two parts: one, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) for the study of the solar internal structure and the physics of the solar corona and the solar wind, and another, CLUSTER, a series of four spacecraft flying in formation to study small scale plasma phenomena in several regions of the magnetosphere and in the near Earth solar wind. The feasibility of the missions was demonstrated in Phase A studies carried out by industrial consortia under the supervision of ESA (1,2). According to the current plans an announcement of opportunity calling for instrument proposals will be issued by ESA during the first quarter of 1987. It is foreseen that the spacecraft will be launched by the end of 1994.

scholarly journals Merged SAGE II, Ozone_cci and OMPS ozone profile dataset and evaluation of ozone trends in the stratosphere

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (20) ◽  
pp. 12533-12552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktoria F. Sofieva ◽  
Erkki Kyrölä ◽  
Marko Laine ◽  
Johanna Tamminen ◽  
Doug Degenstein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Stratospheric Ozone ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Ozone Profile ◽  
Ozone Trends ◽  
Stratospheric Cooling ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Good Agreement

Abstract. In this paper, we present a merged dataset of ozone profiles from several satellite instruments: SAGE II on ERBS, GOMOS, SCIAMACHY and MIPAS on Envisat, OSIRIS on Odin, ACE-FTS on SCISAT, and OMPS on Suomi-NPP. The merged dataset is created in the framework of the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (Ozone_cci) with the aim of analyzing stratospheric ozone trends. For the merged dataset, we used the latest versions of the original ozone datasets. The datasets from the individual instruments have been extensively validated and intercompared; only those datasets which are in good agreement, and do not exhibit significant drifts with respect to collocated ground-based observations and with respect to each other, are used for merging. The long-term SAGE–CCI–OMPS dataset is created by computation and merging of deseasonalized anomalies from individual instruments. The merged SAGE–CCI–OMPS dataset consists of deseasonalized anomalies of ozone in 10° latitude bands from 90° S to 90° N and from 10 to 50 km in steps of 1 km covering the period from October 1984 to July 2016. This newly created dataset is used for evaluating ozone trends in the stratosphere through multiple linear regression. Negative ozone trends in the upper stratosphere are observed before 1997 and positive trends are found after 1997. The upper stratospheric trends are statistically significant at midlatitudes and indicate ozone recovery, as expected from the decrease of stratospheric halogens that started in the middle of the 1990s and stratospheric cooling.

scholarly journals Merged SAGE II, Ozone_cci and OMPS ozone profiles dataset and evaluation of ozone trends in the stratosphere

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktoria F. Sofieva ◽  
Erkki Kyrölä ◽  
Marko Laine ◽  
Johanna Tamminen ◽  
Doug Degenstein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Linear Regression ◽  
Multiple Linear Regression ◽  
Stratospheric Ozone ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Ozone Trends ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Good Agreement

Abstract. In this paper, we present a merged dataset of ozone profiles from several satellite instruments: SAGE II on ERBS, GOMOS, SCIAMACHY and MIPAS on Envisat, OSIRIS on Odin, ACE-FTS on SCISAT, and OMPS on Suomi-NPP. The merged dataset is created in the framework of European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (Ozone_cci) with the aim of analyzing stratospheric ozone trends. For the merged dataset, we used the latest versions of the original ozone datasets. The datasets from the individual instruments have been extensively validated and inter-compared; only those datasets, which are in good agreement and do not exhibit significant drifts with respect to collocated ground-based observations and with respect to each other, are used for merging. The long-term SAGE-CCI-OMPS dataset is created by computation and merging of deseasonalized anomalies from individual instruments. The merged SAGE-CCI-OMPS dataset consists of deseasonalized anomalies of ozone in 10° latitude bands from 90° S to 90° N and from 10 to 50 km in steps of 1 km covering the period from October 1984 to July 2016. This newly created dataset is used for evaluating ozone trends in the stratosphere through multiple linear regression. Negative ozone trends in the upper stratosphere are observed before 1997 and positive trends are found after 1997. The upper stratospheric trends are statistically significant at mid-latitudes in the upper stratosphere and indicate ozone recovery, as expected from the decrease of stratospheric halogens that started in the middle of the 1990s.

scholarly journals Icarus: In-situ monitoring of the surface degradation on a near-Sun asteroid

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikael Granvik ◽  
Tuomas Lehtinen ◽  
Andrea Bellome ◽  
Joan-Pau Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Near Infrared ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Bulk Composition ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Space Mission ◽  
In Situ Monitoring ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Spacecraft Design ◽  
Cost Constraints ◽  
Space Agency

<div class="page" title="Page 1"> <div class="layoutArea"> <div class="column"> <p>Icarus is a mission concept designed to record the activity of an asteroid during a close encounter with the Sun. The primary science goal of the mission is to unravel the nontrivial mechanism(s) that destroy asteroids on orbits with small perihelion distances. Understanding the destruction mechanism(s) allows us to constrain the bulk composition and interior structure of asteroids in general. The Icarus mission does not only aim to achieve its science goals but also functions as a technical demonstration of what a low-cost space mission can do. The proposed space segment will include a single spacecraft capable of surviving and operating in the harsh environment near the Sun. The spacecraft design relies on the heritage of missions such as Rosetta, MESSENGER, Parker Solar Probe, BepiColombo, and Solar Orbiter. The spacecraft will rendezvous with an asteroid during its perihelion passage and records the changes taking place on the asteroid’s surface. The primary scientific payload has to be capable of imaging the asteroid’s surface in high resolution using visual and near-infrared channels as well as collecting and analyzing particles that are ejected from the asteroid. The payload bay also allows for additional payloads relating to, for example, solar research. The Icarus spacecraft and the planned payloads have high technology readiness levels and the mission is aimed to fit the programmatic and cost constraints of the F1 mission (Comet Interceptor) by the European Space Agency. Considering the challenging nature of the Icarus trajectory and the fact that the next F-class mission opportunity (F2) is yet to be announced, we conclude that Icarus is feasible as an F-class mission when certain constraints such as a suitable launch configuration are met (e.g., if EnVision is selected as M5). A larger mission class, such as the M class by the European Space Agency, would be feasible in all circumstances.</p> </div> </div> </div>

scholarly journals Long-term Preservation of Earth Observation Data and Knowledge in ESA through CASPAR

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 4-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Albani ◽  
David Giaretta
Keyword(s):  
Performing Arts ◽  
Reference Model ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Earth Observation ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Long Term Preservation

ESA-ESRIN, the European Space Agency Centre for Earth Observation (EO), is the largest European EO data provider and operates as the reference European centre for EO payload data exploitation. EO Space Missions provide global coverage of the Earth across both space and time generating on a routine continuous basis huge amounts of data (from a variety of sensors) that need to be acquired, processed, elaborated, appraised and archived by dedicated systems. Long-term Preservation of these data and of the ability to discover, access and process them is a fundamental issue and a major challenge at programmatic, technological and operational levels.Moreover these data are essential for scientists needing broad series of data covering long time periods and from many sources. They are used for many types of investigations including ones of international importance such as the study of the Global Change and the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) Program. Therefore it is of primary importance not only to guarantee easy accessibility of historical data but also to ensure users are able to understand and use them; in fact data interpretation can be even more complicated given the fact that scientists may not have (or may not have access to) the right knowledge to interpret these data correctly.To satisfy these requirements, the European Space Agency (ESA), in addition to other internal initiatives, is participating in several EU-funded projects such as CASPAR (Cultural, Artistic, and Scientific knowledge for Preservation, Access and Retrieval), which is building a framework to support the end-to-end preservation lifecycle for digital information, based on the OAIS reference model, with a strong focus on the preservation of the knowledge associated with data.In the CASPAR Project ESA plays the role of both user and infrastructure provider for one of the scientific testbeds, putting into effect dedicated scenarios with the aim of validating the CASPAR solutions in the Earth Science domain. The other testbeds are in the domains of Cultural Heritage and of Contemporary Performing Arts; together they provide a severe test of preservation tools and techniques.In the context of the current ESA overall strategies carried out in collaboration with European EO data owners/providers, entities and institutions which have the objective of guaranteeing long-term preservation of EO data and knowledge, this paper will focus on the ESA participation and contribution to the CASPAR Project, describing in detail the implementation of the ESA scientific testbed.

scholarly journals An improved and homogeneous altimeter sea level record from the ESA Climate Change Initiative

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 281-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-François Legeais ◽  
Michaël Ablain ◽  
Lionel Zawadzki ◽  
Hao Zuo ◽  
Johnny A. Johannessen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Bias Reduction ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Change Initiative ◽  
Internal Validation ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Scales ◽  
Space Agency

Abstract. Sea level is a very sensitive index of climate change since it integrates the impacts of ocean warming and ice mass loss from glaciers and the ice sheets. Sea level has been listed as an essential climate variable (ECV) by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). During the past 25 years, the sea level ECV has been measured from space by different altimetry missions that have provided global and regional observations of sea level variations. As part of the Climate Change Initiative (CCI) program of the European Space Agency (ESA) (established in 2010), the Sea Level project (SL_cci) aimed to provide an accurate and homogeneous long-term satellite-based sea level record. At the end of the first phase of the project (2010–2013), an initial version (v1.1) of the sea level ECV was made available to users (Ablain et al., 2015). During the second phase of the project (2014–2017), improved altimeter standards were selected to produce new sea level products (called SL_cci v2.0) based on nine altimeter missions for the period 1993–2015 (https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-sea_level_cci-1993_2015-v_2.0-201612; Legeais and the ESA SL_cci team, 2016c). Corresponding orbit solutions, geophysical corrections and altimeter standards used in this v2.0 dataset are described in detail in Quartly et al. (2017). The present paper focuses on the description of the SL_cci v2.0 ECV and associated uncertainty and discusses how it has been validated. Various approaches have been used for the quality assessment such as internal validation, comparisons with sea level records from other groups and with in situ measurements, sea level budget closure analyses and comparisons with model outputs. Compared with the previous version of the sea level ECV, we show that use of improved geophysical corrections, careful bias reduction between missions and inclusion of new altimeter missions lead to improved sea level products with reduced uncertainties on different spatial and temporal scales. However, there is still room for improvement since the uncertainties remain larger than the GCOS requirements (GCOS, 2011). Perspectives on subsequent evolution are also discussed.

Development of a simulator of the SIMBIOSYS suite onboard the BepiColombo mission

2019 ◽  
Vol 491 (2) ◽  
pp. 1673-1689 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Slemer ◽  
M Zusi ◽  
E Simioni ◽  
V Da Deppo ◽  
C Re ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Near Infrared ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Response Prediction ◽  
Spectral Radiance ◽  
Optical Channels ◽  
Planet Surface ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Exact Position ◽  
Resolution Imaging ◽  
Global Tectonics

ABSTRACT BepiColombo is the fifth cornerstone mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) dedicated to study the Mercury planet. The BepiColombo spacecraft comprises two science modules: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) realized by ESA and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The MPO is composed by 11 instruments, including the ‘Spectrometer and Imagers for MPO BepiColombo Integrated Observatory System’ (SIMBIOSYS). The SIMBIOSYS suite includes three optical channels: a Stereoscopic Imaging Channel, a High Resolution Imaging Channel, and a Visible and near Infrared Hyperspectral Imager. SIMBIOSYS will characterize the hermean surface in terms of surface morphology, volcanism, global tectonics, and chemical composition. The aim of this work is to describe a tool for the radiometric response prediction of the three SIMBIOSYS channels. Given the spectral properties of the surface, the instrument characteristics, and the geometrical conditions of the observation, the realized SIMBIOSYS simulator is capable of estimating the expected signal and integration times for the entire mission lifetime. In the simulator the spectral radiance entering the instrument optical apertures has been modelled using a Hapke reflectance model implementing the parameters expected for the hermean surface. The instrument performances are simulated by means of calibrated optical and detectors responses. The simulator employs the SPICE (Spacecraft, Planet, Instrument, C-matrix, Environment) toolkit software, which allows us to know for each epoch the exact position of the MPO with respect to the planet surface and the Sun.

scholarly journals The CALIPSO Mission

2010 ◽  
Vol 91 (9) ◽  
pp. 1211-1230 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M. Winker ◽  
J. Pelon ◽  
J. A. Coakley ◽  
S. A. Ackerman ◽  
R. J. Charlson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Climate ◽  
Radiation Budget ◽  
Atmospheric Measurements ◽  
Joint Project ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Early Results ◽  
Infrared Spectral ◽  
Passive Sensors ◽  
Earth’S Climate

Aerosols and clouds have important effects on Earth's climate through their effects on the radiation budget and the cycling of water between the atmosphere and Earth's surface. Limitations in our understanding of the global distribution and properties of aerosols and clouds are partly responsible for the current uncertainties in modeling the global climate system and predicting climate change. The CALIPSO satellite was developed as a joint project between NASA and the French space agency CNES to provide needed capabilities to observe aerosols and clouds from space. CALIPSO carries CALIOP, a two-wavelength, polarization-sensitive lidar, along with two passive sensors operating in the visible and thermal infrared spectral regions. CALIOP is the first lidar to provide long-term atmospheric measurements from Earth's orbit. Its profiling and polarization capabilities offer unique measurement capabilities. Launched together with the CloudSat satellite in April 2006 and now flying in formation with the A-train satellite constellation, CALIPSO is now providing information on the distribution and properties of aerosols and clouds, which is fundamental to advancing our understanding and prediction of climate. This paper provides an overview of the CALIPSO mission and instruments, the data produced, and early results.

ESA CCI and C3S Soil Moisture: latest product updates and climate assessments

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wouter Dorigo ◽  
Wolfgang Preimesberger ◽  
Adam Pasik ◽  
Alexander Gruber ◽  
Leander Moesinger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Change Initiative ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Data Store ◽  
Climate Data Record ◽  
Level 2

<p>As part of the European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) a more than 40 year long climate data record (CDR) is produced by systematically combining Level-2 datasets from separate missions. Combining multiple level 2 datasets into a single consistent long-term product combines the advantages of individual missions and allows deriving a harmonised long-term record with optimal spatial and temporal coverage. The current version of ESA CCI Soil Moisture includes a PASSIVE (radiometer-based) dataset covering the period 1978 to 2019, an ACTIVE (scatterometer-based) product covering the period 1991-2019 and a COMBINED product (1978-2019). </p><p>The European Commission’s Copernicus Climate Changes Service (C3S) uses the ESA CCI soil moisture algorithm to produce similar climate data records from near-real-time Level-2 data streams.  These products are continuously extended within 10 days after data acquisition and instantaneously made available through the C3S Climate Data Store. In addition to a daily product, monthly aggregates as well as a dekadal (10-days) products are produced.</p><p>In this presentation we give an overview of the latest developments of the ESA CCI and C3S Soil Moisture datasets, which include the integration of SMAP and various algorithmic updates, and use the datasets to assess the hydrological conditions of 2019 with respect to a 30-year historical baseline.</p><p>The development of the ESA CCI products has been supported by ESA’s Climate Change Initiative for Soil Moisture (Contract No. 4000104814/11/I-NB and 4000112226/14/I-NB). The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) soil moisture product is funded by the Copernicus Climate Change Service implemented by ECMWF through C3S 312b Lot 7 Soil Moisture service.</p>

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