RAL Space - latest developments in space science and technology

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CCLRC RUTHERFORD APPLETON LABORATORY Earth observation Making observations of the land, sea and air from space allows scientists to develop and improve their models of our environment. Space instruments provide continuous, global measurements for many years at a time allowing events like El Niño to be studied. EARTHSHINE IONOSPHERIC MONITORING MSG (GERB) Astrium UK An artist’s impression of EARTHSHINE The EARTH-Sun-Heliosphere- Interactions Experiment is a multidisciplinary, inter-disciplinary mission which will provide vital new data on how the Sun influences Earth’s space environment and climate. EARTHSHINE will be able to monitor the photon, particle and magnetic outputs of the Sun, and study how they influence the power that Earth reflects back into space. EARTHSHINE will tell us much about the formation and effects of clouds, about the global electric circuit, the solar wind, and how solar and heliospheric magnetic fields form and evolve. Contact: Mike Lockwood Tel: 01235 446496 Email: m.lockwood@rl.ac.uk RAL carries out routine monitoring of the Earth’s ionosphere from Oxfordshire and the Falkland Islands. These stations provide the longest sequences of ionospheric data in their respective hemispheres and set the world standard for data quality. The data are used in a wide variety of science areas, from radio communications to climate change. Contact: Sarah James Tel: 01235 446579 Email: s.f.james@rl.ac.uk www.ionospheric-monitoring.rl.ac.uk/ ENVISAT ESA’s ENVIronmental monitoring SATellite was successfully launched on 1 March 2002. It carries the AATSR instrument – the third in the Along Track Scanning Radiometers (ATSR) series. AATSR monitors global sea surface temperatures with an accuracy of 0.3 C for climate study purposes. RAL provided subsystems and laboratory calibration, and also the reference data processing system. MIPAS, an infrared spectrometer, measures pressure, temperature and trace gases such as ozone from 6 km to 70 km in the atmosphere. RAL provided the low vibration cooler electronics. Contact: Chris Mutlow Tel: 01235 446525 Email: c.t.mutlow@rl.ac.uk www.atsr.rl.ac.uk/ Scientists are using observations from space to understand if the complex interactions between the Sun and Earth’s atmosphere affect global warming The Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget series of instruments monitor the reflected sunlight and thermal emission from Earth, to study daily variations and long-term climate changes. There are four instruments in the series: three have been completed by a European consortium led by RAL and the fourth is currently being manufactured. GERB-1 was launched into geo-synchronous orbit on the first of EUMETSAT’s METEOSAT Second Generation Satellites (MSG-1) on 28 August 2002. MSG-2, with GERB-2, is planned for launch in June 2005. This will meet EUMETSAT’s requirement to have two of the MSG satellites in orbit at any time, one Checking GERB at RAL providing the operational service and the other acting as a reserve. The four satellites scan the Earth roughly every three minutes and are designed to provide a service for more than 15 years. RAL has also developed and operates a major part of the GERB ground segment, receiving data from the instrument in near real-time, processing and archiving it. Contact: Cormac Neeson Tel: 01235 446435 Email: c.g.neeson@rl.ac.uk www.sstd.rl.ac.uk/gerb/ 6
RAL SPACE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TOPSAT under test in a clean room at RAL EISCAT TOPSAT SUPPORTING GALILEO The European Incoherent SCATter facility consists of three radar systems in Northern Scandinavia which studies the ionosphere, the ionised region of the Earth's atmosphere. At high latitudes the Earth's magnetic field lines extend outwards from the ionosphere into regions of the magnetosphere which interact strongly with the solar wind, so that EISCAT can observe many important solarterrestrial coupling processes. Major science themes include the study of energy coupling from the Sun to the Earth's plasma environment, with coordinated observations with Cluster (p.5). An increasing emphasis is placed A high-resolution optical camera is being developed for the TopSat programme, producing 2.5 m resolution panchromatic images and 5 m resolution colour images. The camera has been built for approximately one fifth of the cost of comparable cameras and is scheduled for launch in mid 2005. Contact: Nigel Morris Tel: 01235 445470 Email: n.morris@rl.ac.uk www.sstd.rl.ac.uk/TopSat/ MST RADAR Galileo, Europe’s own GPS system, becomes real with the launch in October 2005 of Surrey Satellite Technology Limited’s ‘test bed’ satellite GSTB-V2A. RAL’s Ground Station will help validate the operations, supporting the launch and early operations phase, and provide a backup during the two year mission. The 25 m antenna at Chilbolton will carry out the crucial in-orbit testing and validation. Contact: Trevor Dimbylow Tel: 01235 445827 Email: t.g.dimbylow@rl.ac.uk MARSCHALS Construction of the original EISCAT 42 m dish at Svalbard, taken in 1995 on the study of solar-terrestrial influences on long-term global change. In 2005, EISCAT starts a design study into a next-generation phased array radar system which will provide the basis of its observational capability for the next decade, complementing a similar radar due to be deployed in North America in 2006. Contact: Ian McCrea Tel: 01235 446513 Email: i.w.mccrea@rl.ac.uk www.eiscat.rl.ac.uk/ Some of the 400 Yagi aerials from the MST radar at Aberystwyth The NERC Mesosphere-Stratosphere- Troposphere Radar at Aberystwyth is the UK’s most powerful and versatile wind-profiling instrument. In the ST mode it provides continuous measurements of the threedimensional wind vector over the altitude range 2 km to 20 km at high resolution (300 m in altitude and a few minutes in time). Contact: David Hooper Tel: 01235 445705 Email: d.a.hooper@rl.ac.uk The sturdy frame for the MARSCHALS experiment being checked against the design MARSCHALS is a millimetre-wave spectrometer designed to measure vertical profiles of ozone, water vapour, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, nitric acid and other gaseous components of the Earth’s atmosphere from the Russian Geophysica high-altitude aeroplane. It is also a simulator for MASTER, one of the key instruments for a future space mission. Contact: Brian Moyna Tel: 01235 446548 Email: b.moyna@rl.ac.uk 7
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