The Earth and Mission Science Division is a group of
European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...
(ESA) staff mission scientists, contractors, research fellows, young graduates, trainees, and administrative staff working within the Climate Action, Sustainability and Science Department of the Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes. The Division is located at ESA's
European Space Research and Technology Centre
The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) is the European Space Agency's main technology development and test centre for spacecraft and space technology. It is situated in Noordwijk, South Holland, in the western Netherlands, alth ...
in
Noordwijk
Noordwijk () is a town and municipality in the west of the Netherlands, in the provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water and had a population of in .
On 1 January 2019, the f ...
,
South Holland
South Holland ( ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.8 million as of January 2023 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely populated areas. ...
,
The Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
.
Introduction
The Earth and Mission Science Division (MSD) supports the preparation, development and operations of research and operational missions within the Earth Observation Programmes Directorate. The Division is responsible for ensuring the application of scientific and other user community requirements in all phases of the development of Earth Observation missions, from precursor studies through to in-orbit satellite operations, and for ensuring coherence throughout with the objectives expressed in the mission requirements documents, including the management of mission-, instrument-specific, or ad-hoc advisory structures (as required). The Division organises and supports the activities of the
Advisory Committee for Earth Observation (ACEO), including management and implementation of the scientific selection procedure for ESA research missions.
In support of the preparation of new mission concepts, or development and operations of each
ESA approved Earth Observation mission, the Division conceives, initiates and conducts supporting scientific studies (in house and external) to ensure that the mission is "fit for purpose". In addition, the Division organises, coordinates and executes Campaigns for the purpose of acquiring airborne, balloon-borne, or in-situ data. Campaigns are specifically designed in support of technology or mission concept development, mission development, data simulation, and instrument calibration or product validation purposes. Campaign data are distributed publicly.
Mission Science Division Management
The Mission Science Division management team are:
* Dr. Mark R. Drinkwater (Head of Earth and Mission Science Division
* Dr. Cristian Rossi (Head of Earth Surfaces and Interior Section)
* Dr. Malcolm Davidson (Head of Campaigns Section)
* Dr. Thorsten Fehr (Head of Atmospheric Section
Research Missions
ESA's Earth Observation research missions comprise Earth Explorers, Missions of Opportunity, and Scout missions.
The Earth and Mission Science Division has published severa
Calls for Proposals of Mission Ideas and prepared and contributed to the approval of ten science-driven
ESA Earth Explorer
with three candidates selected from proposals to the 2017 Call for core Earth Explorer mission ideas; and four candidates selected from the 2020 Call for Earth Explorer research mission ideas, namely:
Earth Explorer ''Core'' missions
*
GOCE
The Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) was the first of European Space Agency, ESA's Living Planet Programme satellite, heavy satellites intended to map in unprecedented detail the Earth's gravity field. The spacecr ...
(launched successfully on 17 March 2009; successfull
completed its mission on 11 November 2013
* Aeolus
In Greek mythology, Aiolos, transcribed as Aeolus (; ; ) refers to three characters. These three are often difficult to tell apart, and even the ancient mythographers appear to have been perplexed about which Aeolus was which. Diodorus Siculus m ...
(launched successfully on 22 August 201
successfull
completed its mission on 28 July 2023
* EarthCAREbr>
* Biomass (satellite)
Biomass is an Earth observing satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA). The mission will provide the first comprehensive measurements of global forest biomass and is expected to significantly improve the understanding of carbon storage, fore ...
br>
Harmony
Th
Call for proposals for Earth Explorer 10 (EE10) core mission ideas
was released in September 2017. Three candidate mission ideas: Daedalus, Harmony and Hydroterra (formerly STEREOID:(Stereo Thermo-Optically Enhanced Radar for Earth, Ocean, Ice, and land Dynamic
wer
selected for Phase 0 pre-feasibility study in September 2018
After completion of Phase 0 in February 2021, Harmony was selected to proceed to Phase A feasibility study. Upon successful conclusion of the feasibility study an
presentation of the Harmony mission at ESA-ESTEC on 5 July 2022
at
User Consultation Meeting
Harmony was ultimately selected as Earth Explorer 10 in September 2022.
Call for proposals for Earth Explorer 11 (EE-11) mission ideas
was released on 25 May 2020. The Call closed in December 2020, with 15 proposals submitted via the EO Proposals Submission (EOPRO) Website , https://eopro.esa.int. Upon peer review of all proposals, the following four candidate ideas were selected for Phase 0 pre-feasibility study in June 2021:
* CAIRT
Changing-Atmosphere InfraRed Tomography)
Nitrosat
Seastar
WIVERN (WInd VElocity Radar Nephoscope)
On 10-11 October 2023 th
Earth Explorer 11 User Consultation Meeting
was held in Bucharest, Romania, after which two of the candidates, CAIRT and WIVERN, were selected in November 2023 by ESA Member States to proceed to Phase A.
A Call for proposals for Earth Explorer 12 (EE12) mission ideas is currently open (https://eopro.esa.int). Seventeen proposed mission ideas were received by the deadline of 29 September, 2023 and evaluated by independent scientific peer reviewers, and ESA technical and programmatic review panels
Four EE12 candidates were selected for Phase 0 pre-feasibility study in April 2024
CryoRad
ECO
Hydroterra+
Keystone
Earth Explorer ''Opportunity'' missions
CryoSat-2(launched successfully on 8 April 2010)
*
Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity, SMOS (launched successfully on 2 November 2009)
*
Swarmbr>
(launched successfully on 22 November 2013)
*
FLEX (satellite), FLEXbr>
-Fluorescence Explorer(*selected in November 2015).
Earth Explorer ''Fast Track'' missions
*
FORUMbr>
(*selected in September 2019
Missions of Opportunity
* The SAOCOM Companion Satellite (SAOCOM-CS) formation flying mission was a candidate Mission of Opportunity which was studied a
Phase Ain 2014–16 in response to an opportunity from the Argentinian Space Agency (Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales Argentina - CONAE) to design, develop and launch a companion satellite with "passive" radar working in tandem with the SAOCOM-1B L-band radar mission. The primary objective of SAOCOM-CS was to exploit bi-static modes for land applications, and to perfor
forest tomographyexploiting small baselines between active and passive systems (of order of km) changing with time. SAOCOM-CS did not proceed to implementation.
*The Next Generation Gravity Mission (NGGM)
is a candidate Mission of Opportunity studied in the frame of the ESA–NASA Mass Change and Geosciences International Constellation (MAGIC). The mission aims at enabling long-term monitoring of the temporal variations of Earth's gravity field at relatively high temporal (down to 3 days) and increased spatial resolutions (up to 100 km) at longer time intervals. The NGGM mission concept, based on European technical developments for the CHAMP, GOCE, GRACE and GRACE-FO missions
would deliver continuity and a sustained satellite gravimetry dataset relevant for climate applications.
Operational Missions
The Division currently supports the development of six series of approved
Copernicus Programme Sentinel Missions, six Copernicus Expansion missions, and four Copernicus Next Generation missions as part of the Space Component of the joint
EC/
ESA Copernicus initiative. It has supported the development of MetOp, and is currently active in supporting the preparation of MetOp Second Generation (MetOp-SG). Recently, the TRUTHS mission was approved for preparatory phase activities as a potential Earth Watch mission.
Copernicus Space Component missions
*
Sentinel 1 – (Sentinel-1A launched successfully on 3 April 2014 and Sentinel-1B on 25 April 2016
*
Sentinel 2 – (Sentinel-2A launched successfully on 23 June 2015 and Sentinel-2B on 7 March 2017
*
Sentinel 3 – (Sentinel-3A launched successfully on 16 February 2016 and Sentinel-3B launch scheduled in April 2018
Sentinel 4 (on Meteosat Third Generation-S)ref name=":0">
*
Sentinel-5 Precursor - (launched successfully on 13 October 2017)
Sentinel 5 (on MetOp-Second Generation- Metop-SG)
ref name=":0" />
Sentinel 6
– (also known as Jason Continuity of Service – Jason-CS).
In preparation for the second-generation of Copernicus (Copernicus2.0)
six Sentinel "Expansion" missions
are being developed by ESA to address EU Policy and gaps in user needs, and to increase the current capabilities of the Copernicus Space Component:
* CO2M – Anthropogenic emissions Monitoring mission
* LSTM – High spatio-temporal resolution Land Surface Temperature Mission
* CRISTAL – Copernicus PolaR Ice and Snow Topography Altimeter mission
* CHIME – Copernicus Hyperspectral Imaging Mission for the Environment
* CIMR – polar Imaging Microwave Radiometer mission
* ROSE-L – Radar Observing System for Europe - L-band SAR mission.
In preparation for Copernicus2.0, design concepts for four next generation Sentinels (Sentinel-NG) are being prepared by ESA within its FutureEO Programme, to deliver enhanced continuity to the first generation Sentinel satellites:
* Sentinel 1 NG
*Sentinel 2 NG
*Sentinel 3 NG Topography
*Sentinel 3 NG Optical/IR.
Meteorological Satellite Series
The Division also presently supports the development of several instruments out of the 10 instrument payload of the approved series of second generation MetOp satellites. The MetOp-SG series is developed in cooperation with EUMETSAT, as part of the EUMETSAT Polar System – Second Generation initiative. EPS-SG represents Europe's contribution to the future Joint Polar System (JPS).
MWS
(MicroWave Sounder), to provide atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles
SCA
(Scatterometer), to provide ocean surface wind vectors and land surface soil moisture
RO
(Radio Occultation sounder), to provide atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles, as well as information about the ionosphere
MWI
(MicroWave Imager), to provide precipitation monitoring as well as sea ice extent information
ICI
(Ice and Cloud Imager), to measure cloud ice water path, properties and altitude
3MI
(Multi-viewing, Multi-channel, Multi-polarisation Imager), to provide information on atmospheric aerosols
UVNS/S5
(Ultra-Violet /Visible/Near Infrared/Short Wave Infrared spectrometer -Sentinel-5) instrument, to monitor various trace gases, air quality and support climate monitoring.
Earth Watch
The Division is currently supporting the feasibility phase of the following potential future mission:
* TRUTHS (Traceable Radiometry Underpinning Terrestrial- and Helio- Studies) mission proposed by the UK, to establish an SI-traceable space-based climate and calibration observing system to improve confidence in climate-change forecasts – a kind of ‘standards laboratory in space’.
References
External links
For more information, see:
*{{Official website, https://www.esa.int of the European Space Agency (ESA)
FutureEO Webpage of the European Space Agency
Earth Explorers: ESA’s world-class research missions
* Advisory Committee for Earth Observation
Campaigns page of the Mission Science Division
Campaigns Blog
European Space Agency
Remote sensing organizations
Earth sciences organizations
Noordwijk