The ESA-JAXA EarthCARE clouds, aerosol and radiation explorer mission: overview and development status

Dulce Lajas; M. Eisinger; T. Wehr; Robert Koopman; A. Lefebvre

doi:10.1117/12.2197525

16 October 2015 The ESA-JAXA EarthCARE clouds, aerosol and radiation explorer mission: overview and development status

Dulce Lajas, M. Eisinger, T. Wehr, Robert Koopman, A. Lefebvre

Proceedings Volume 9640, Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere XX; 964003 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2197525
Event: SPIE Remote Sensing, 2015, Toulouse, France

Abstract

The EarthCARE, Earth Clouds, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer, is a joint European-Japanese mission (ESA/JAXA/NICT) which has been defined with the objective of improving the understanding of cloud-aerosol-radiation interactions so as to include them correctly and reliably in climate and numerical weather prediction models. The EarthCARE Mission has been approved for implementation as ESA's third Earth Explorer Core Mission. It is currently in its Detailed Design Phase (phase C/D) with a launch scheduled for 2018 [1]. This paper presents the EarthCARE programmatic status, the current instrument design and mission performance. The mission end-to-end simulator (E3SIM) and data processing up to level 2 (geophysical products) and related science activities will be discussed. The E3SIM supports end-to-end simulations from a scene definition to synergistic level 2 products. Level 2 retrieval algorithms can be tested in the full chain (provision of input data, algorithm performance tests by comparison of outputs with known inputs) by using a single framework with well-defined interfaces helping to harmonise algorithm developments.

Citation Download Citation

Dulce Lajas, M. Eisinger, T. Wehr, Robert Koopman, and A. Lefebvre "The ESA-JAXA EarthCARE clouds, aerosol and radiation explorer mission: overview and development status", Proc. SPIE 9640, Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere XX, 964003 (16 October 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2197525

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available