The European Space Agency is planning to launch a satellite that will give an unprecedented picture of the atmosphere, and deliver better weather forecasts and climate change projections.
Humanity鈥檚 greenhouse gas emissions have led to a drop in longwave radiation heading out of the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere, trapping energy and warming the planet by more than 1掳C since the industrial revolution. Today鈥檚 satellites can measure the mid-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum 鈥� where electromagnetic waves have a wavelength of 4-15 microns 鈥� but the new satellite鈥檚 spectrometer instruments will extend that into the far-infrared, with wavelengths of up to 100 microns, giving the full picture.
Hilke Oetjen of ESA says that more than half of outgoing radiation is in the far-infrared, which has barely been observed from space before. Some very limited measurements were performed from satellites until the 1970s but only briefly and in much less detail than the new project.
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The new should give a much more accurate picture of greenhouse gasses and water vapour in the atmosphere, in turn providing data for better projections of how the world will warm in future.
鈥淚t will help with improving climate models and will also deliver improved climate monitoring and hence will reduce uncertainty in climate predictions,鈥� says Oetjen.
The satellite鈥檚 sensors will also help researchers research thin and wispy cirrus clouds, which are poorly understood but that can have a strong warming effect. That information has the potential to help with weather forecasts, Oetjen adds.
The mission, which will cost hundreds of millions of Euros, should head into orbit in 2025 or 2026. FORUM is now waiting on approval from ESA directors, who are due to decide on funding in November.
