The EarthCARE satellite, which is poised to revolutionise our understanding of how clouds and aerosols affect our climate with its four state-of-the-art instruments, has been launched successfully. Just 10 minutes after it embarked on its journey, the satellite separated from the rocket and at 01:14 CEST, the Hartebeesthoek ground station in South Africa received the all-important signal indicating that EarthCARE is safely in orbit around Earth. The new mission is a joint venture between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA. TNO designed and developed one of the instruments: the Multi Spectral Imager (MSI). Scientists at KNMI have a leading role in the scientific endeavors and algorithm development.
ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Simonetta Cheli, said, “EarthCARE is the most complex of ESA’s research missions to date. Its development, and now launch, is thanks to close cooperation with our JAXA partners, who contributed the satellite’s cloud profiling radar instrument, and all of the space industry teams involved.”
“The mission comes at a critical time when advancing our scientific knowledge is more important than ever to understand and act on climate change, and we very much look forward to receiving its first data.”
Beeld: AFP
