RS-Lab actions along with the ESA-JAXA EarthCARE Satellite Successfully Launched!

Afwan Hafiz, Dominika Szczepanik, Iwona Stachlewska

What an exciting week just passed! It started with International Mother’s Day and ended with Child Day, but in the middle of this week, great achievement occurred. At night of 28^th -29^th May 2024, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully launched the EarthCARE satellite! This outstanding satellite started its journey aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US at 15:20 local time (29th May 00:20 CEST). Thanks to the live stream of this event[1], everyone interested had the opportunity to witness this special moment. Our Remote Sensing Laboratory team (RS-Lab) also wanted to share this update with you.

• What is an EarthCARE?

Starting from the very beginning, the acronym EarthCARE comes from the Earth Clouds, Aerosols, and Radiation Explorer. It is a complex satellite joint mission designed to enhance our understanding of the interactions among clouds, aerosols, and radiation and their impact on the Earth's climate. It will provide critical data to improve weather prediction models and climate research, observing Earth from an altitude of approx. 400 km.  

The  EarthCARE is equipped with state-of-the-art instruments, including a cloud profiling radar (CPR), an atmospheric lidar (ATLID), and a multispectral imager (MSI), to deliver unprecedented insights into atmospheric processes. The mission represents a significant milestone in international cooperation, combining the expertise and resources of ESA, JAXA, and SpaceX.

• Lift-Off on the orbit and Deployment

The satellite launch was carefully planned, with the broadcast starting slightly before the rocket lift-off. It was the 57th flight of the Falcon 9. This mission was marked the 7th telemetry flight for Stage 1 and the 1st telemetry flight for Stage 2 of Falcon 9. The exact EarthCARE deployment occurred at 12:31 CEST.

Vice president of JAXA, Terada Koji, added: "The name EarthCARE comes from 'hakuryu' in Japanese, which means white dragon, as 2024 is the Year of the Dragon”, while the DLR Director General, Walter Palzer added: “The EarthCARE is our number one rank in our space strategy and the closest to our heart”.

• Post-Launch Milestones

Thorsten Fehr from ESA, expressed his excitement with the successful launch, stating: "This is one of the greatest moments in my professional life", as he awaited the first signal from EarthCARE, which was scheduled at 01:11 CEST, 40 minutes after the deployment. Finally, the first signal was observed at 01:14 CEST at the Hartebeesthoek ground station in South Africa, after a small delay.

Within the next 5 minutes, the basic checks were completed, and confirmed the satellite's status as all good. The next steps will include calibration and validation before obtaining real data and more scientific results.

The launch broadcast was closed by a comment from ESA Director General, Josef Aschbacher, and JAXA president, Yamakawa Hiroshi. They expressed their excitement with comments: “The precise deployment of EarthCARE into its intended orbit by the Falcon 9 rocket marks another successful collaboration between space agencies and private industry, underscoring the increasing role of commercial partners in advancing scientific exploration”.

• RS-Lab team preparations at the Institute of Geophysics, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw

One of the primary challenges for the ESA's calibration/validation missions is to effectively deploy the EMORAL lidar at various locations under satellite overpasses. Previously, it was realized for the simulated EarthCARE overpasses when the RS-Lab team conducted the measurements in February, aiming to test the lidar’s performance during EarthCARE ‘dry runs’ realized with POLIMOS CCN4 (4000119961/16/NL/FF/mg) project. Measurements were taken by Rafał Fortuna, Iwona Stachlewska i Zuzanna Rykowska.  In the frame of the ATMO-ACCESS TNA pilot both lidars were employed: the mobile EMORAL (coordinated by Co-PI of this activity – Afwan Hafiz) and the stationary PollyXT (Co-PI Dominika Szczepanik).

As the deployment of EMORAL is a crucial part of the preparations for ESA's EarthCARE mission, it was necessary to conduct an intercomparison campaign to perform the final check of the lidar's capabilities. It took place in the Măgurele Center for Atmosphere and Radiation Studies (MARS) in Romania, under the cooperative work of experts from ACTRIS Center of Aerosol Remote Sensing (CARS) facility at the National Institute for Research and Development in Optoelectronics (INOE) and the RS-Lab team leader Iwona Stachlewska.

The mentioned intercomparison campaign with MARS lidars (RALI and ALPHA) lasted two weeks, between 18-31 May, and by its end, EMORAL achieved compliance certification, ensuring its readiness for future missions.

More details about this activity can be found here.

[1] Recording of the official broadcast is available on the ESA's official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9WKok_1Jhg.

Background picture: launch of EarthCARE satellite: https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/EarthCARE