ImperativeMOOCs

Topic 1b - Overview of ESA's Atmospheric Satellite Missions and Sensors

There are now numerous satellites and instruments that are capable of monitoring atmospheric composition. Notable satellites include:

The Aeolus satellite, which carries the first instrument of its kind – a space Doppler wind LIDAR called Aladin (the Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument) which is one of the most sophisticated instruments ever to be put into orbit. It includes revolutionary laser technology to generate pulses of ultraviolet light that are beamed down into the atmosphere to profile the world’s winds and aerosols.

The Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor (Sentinel-5p) satellite, which has TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard is capable of measuring daily global column amounts of different trace gases and aerosols.

Two EO instruments set to monitor the atmosphere in the future, are Sentinel-4 and Sentinel-5. The Sentinel-5 mission consists of an Ultra-violet, Visible and Near-infrared Sounder (UVNS) which will embark on the MetOp-SG A satellite, due to launch in 2023. It will focus on air quality and composition-climate interaction. The Sentinel-4 mission consists of an Ultraviolet-Visible-Near-Infrared (UVN) light imaging spectrometer instrument, which will embark on the Meteosat Third Generation Sounder (MTG-S) satellite, and will focus on monitoring of trace gas concentrations and aerosols in the atmosphere.

‍Featured Educators

Dr Claus Zehner, Sentinel-5p Mission Manager, ESA
Dr Anne Grete Straume, Aeolus Project Scientist, ESA

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AEOLUS

To view colour bars for data layers in other themes view the Dataviewer – colour bars reference page.

Sentinel-5p

To view colour bars for data layers in other themes view the Dataviewer – colour bars reference page.

Optional Further Reading

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Featured Images and Example Data

Illustration of Sentinel-5p

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ESA/ATG Medialab

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The Dutch have been designing and building satellite atmospheric sensors, such as those carried on ERS and Envisat, since the 1990s. Building on this technical heritage, Tropomi – the most advanced multispectral imaging spectrometer to date – was developed jointly by ESA and the Netherlands Space Office.

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ESA

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Sentinel-5P TROPOMI Aerosol Index

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Copernicus Sentinel data processed by ESA

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The GOME-2 instrument scans across the satellite track. Each scan back and forth takes just six seconds; therefore, with a scan-width of 1920-kilometres, global coverage can be achieved within one day.

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ESA - AOES Medialab

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6 month average Troposheric NO2 column densities, taken by TROPOMI aboard Sentinel-5p in 2018.

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contains modified Copernicus data (2018), processed by KNMI

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Illustration of Sentinel-5. Sentinel-5 is set to make a step change in monitoring and forecasting global air quality.

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ESA/P. Carril

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Artist's impression of Sentinel-4. The Sentinel-4 payload will be embarked upon a Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellite in geostationary orbit.

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ESA - P.Carril

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The six different Sentinel missions carry a range of state-of-the-art technologies to supply a stream of complementary imagery and data tailored to the needs of Europe’s environmental monitoring Copernicus programme.

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ESA

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