The multi-spectral imager on board the EarthCARE spacecraft

Abelardo Pérez Albiñana; Robert Gelsthorpe; Alain Lefebvre; Maximillian Sauer; Erich Weih; Klaus-Werner Kruse; Ralf Münzenmayer; Guy Baister; Mark Chang

doi:10.1117/12.858864

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27 August 2010 The multi-spectral imager on board the EarthCARE spacecraft

Abelardo Pérez Albiñana, Robert Gelsthorpe, Alain Lefebvre, Maximillian Sauer, Erich Weih, Klaus-Werner Kruse, Ralf Münzenmayer, Guy Baister, Mark Chang

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Proceedings Volume 7808, Infrared Remote Sensing and Instrumentation XVIII; 780815 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.858864
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Clouds and aerosols are important atmospheric elements that strongly influence the weather and climate on planet Earth. The European Space Agency (ESA) is currently developing, in co-operation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) the EarthCARE satellite mission with the objective of improving the understanding of the cloudaerosols- radiation interactions within the Earth's atmosphere. It is foreseen that the data provided by the EarthCARE satellite will allow the improvement of the currently available numerical prediction models, and therefore the quality of the weather forecast and climate evolution predictions. The payload of the EarthCARE satellite consists of a Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR), a Backscatter Lidar (ATLID), a Broadband Radiometer (BBR), and a Multi-spectral Imager (MSI). The MSI instrument will provide images of the earth in 7 spectral bands in the visible and infrared parts of the spectrum, with a spatial ground resolution of 500 m and an image width on the ground of 150 km. This paper provides a description of the MSI instrument and its expected performance.

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Abelardo Pérez Albiñana, Robert Gelsthorpe, Alain Lefebvre, Maximillian Sauer, Erich Weih, Klaus-Werner Kruse, Ralf Münzenmayer, Guy Baister, and Mark Chang "The multi-spectral imager on board the EarthCARE spacecraft", Proc. SPIE 7808, Infrared Remote Sensing and Instrumentation XVIII, 780815 (27 August 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.858864

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