CO2M: Copernicus Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide Monitoring

This set of satellites will detect the spectral absorption signals of carbon dioxide in infrared sunlight reflected off Earth’s surface. From this information we will be able to retrieve concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with high-precision – to 0.7 ppm (parts per million). The high spatial and temporal resolution planned for this mission represents a step-change in what is currently available for measuring carbon dioxide from space. It will measure carbon dioxide at 2×2 km2 and scan each point of the globe every few days to capture the plumes from individual power plants. The swath – the width of vision – will be more than 250 km per satellite. In addition, the satellites will be given additional instruments that detect nitrogen dioxides emitted from burning fossil fuels at high temperature, which will help locate carbon dioxide plumes produced by humans and distinguish them from carbon dioxide coming from natural sources. The satellites will also have sensors to detect clouds and aerosols to improve carbon dioxide measurement accuracy. Alongside these data, ESA will support a system that provides policy-relevant information based on satellite data and other the development of independent sources of information on carbon dioxide concentrations, including from in-situ networks of sensors.

ESA aims to launch CO2M by the end of 2025, and is expected to provide data from 2026 to support the second global stocktake of greenhouse gas emissions, to be concluded in 2028, by countries participating in the Paris Agreement. The mission is expected to be a potent tool enabling nation states to better understand their carbon footprint, verify national emissions reports using independent data, and to set more ambitious targets. The CO2M mission will also be a valuable source of information for climate modellers, to tune Global Coupled Climate models’ representation of the carbon cycle.

To learn more, read: CO2M Mission Requirements Document

LSTM: Copernicus Land Surface Temperature Monitoring

This Copernicus candidate mission will map every 1-3 days the surface temperature of the planet and rates of evapotranspiration – the water vapour emitted by growing plants – at 400 times finer resolution than currently measured from space. It will have a low-Earth polar orbit, with each pixel in its radiometer’s field of view representing a square of size 50 metres. The overpass time will be early afternoon and it will provide daily measurements from five bands in the thermal infrared spectral range 8 ‐ 12.5 μm complemented by bands in the visible and near-infrared. ESA will provide level 2 data (with various corrections and calibrations applied) for land surface temperature, emissivity and bottom of atmosphere surface reflectance per spectral band, total column water vapour and cloud mask information, as well as lower-level products.

Accurately tracking Earth’s temperature using satellite-derived information helps to explain the physics at the land-surface, including the processes driving energy and moisture exchange with the overlying atmosphere. Monitoring and understanding drought, changes in vegetation, heatwaves, urban heat island effects and the stability and extent of permafrost will all benefit from these data. The mission is focussed on addressing the priority requirements of the agricultural user community for improving sustainable productivity at the field-scale in a world of increasing water scarcity and variability caused by climate change. In particular, the daily evapotranspiration measures provided by LSTM will help farmers to manage irrigation regimes and optimize yield with minimum water supplies. LSTM’s thermal infrared sensing ability will also apply to sea and lake surface temperature monitoring: its high spatial resolution will be particularly useful for tracking small features such as lakes in the Arctic, coastal zones, rivers, coral reefs, ocean upwellings and structures such as oceanic eddies that influence vertical transport of nutrients, crucial for ocean productivity. In an urban context, LSTM will inform planning and ‘climate-adaptive’ building design to deal with heatwaves.

To learn more, read: LSTM Mission Requirements Document

CHIME: Copernicus Hyperspectral Imaging Mission for the Environment

This hyperspectral imaging mission will provide routine observations through the Copernicus Programme for managing natural resources and assets in support of EU policy, and will complement currently flying multi-spectral missions such as Sentinel-2. Compared to multi-spectral missions, CHIME will have an increased number of narrow spectral bands (spectral resolution of 10nm with no gaps between bands) in the visible-to-shortwave infrared range (400-2500nm), which will allow for a more accurate determination of biochemical and biophysical variables.

The mission will provide hyperspectral observations with high radiometric accuracy at a spatial resolution of 20-30m and with a revisit time of 10-12.5 days, using a sun synchronous orbit with overpass time of between 10.30-11.30am. The core products supplied by the mission will be Level-2A atmospheric and geometrically correct surface reflectance, including Bottom-of-Atmosphere (BOA) reflectance, ortho-rectified geometry using a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and pixel classification (a side product from the atmospheric correction process) allowing users to distinguish opaque clouds, thin clouds, cloud shadows, vegetation, etc. In addition, a set of downstream-products will be proposed to users as part of the mission catalogue to support the operational use of the data.

Products and services from CHIME are expected to support research in the domains of agriculture, food security, raw materials, soils, biodiversity, environmental degradation and hazards, inland and coastal waters, and forestry. The mission will make unique and major contributions towards fulfilling user requirements in the domains of agricultural services and sustainable agricultural management, and raw materials. It will support a number of policies, in particular the UN SDGs (SDGs 2, 12 and 15), the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the EU Raw Materials Initiative, the UN Convention for Combating Desertification and Land Degradation, the Soil Thematic Strategy and the Soil Framework Directive, the EU Water Framework Directive and the UN Convention on Biodiversity (Aichi Targets).

To learn more, read: CHIME Mission Requirements Document

CIMR: Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer

This multi-frequency microwave radiometer has been designed to provide evidence to support decisions within the European Commission Integrated Policy of the Arctic that has a focus on the Arctic climate emergency. CIMR’s high spatial resolution and high-fidelity measurements will be essential to continue the historical climate record of sea ice concentration derived from microwave radiometry over the past 40 years.

The mission will provide observations roughly every 6 hours the polar regions, focusing on low-frequency channels but uniquely, at high spatial resolution. Observations at microwave frequencies are not affected by clouds – a persistent observational challenge in the Arctic and over the oceans. It will use a dusk-dawn orbit to achieve complete coverage of the Earth’s surface every 2 days using a single satellite. Sea-ice concentration will be derived from dedicated Ku- and Ka-band (18.6 and 36.5 GHz) channels at a resolution of less than 5 km in combination with C-band (6.9 GHz) data. 

CIMR’s L-band (1.4 GHz) channel will be useful to determine the thickness of thin – less than 50 cm –  sea ice, sea surface salinity and wind speed over the ocean – addressing a data gap at the end of previous ESA and NASA missions. Its C- and X-band (6.9 and 10.65 GHz) channels will support derivations of sea-surface temperature at an unprecedented spatial resolution of 15 km or better, compared to other microwave radiometers. A range of other parameters that could be determined using CIMR include sea ice drift, ice type, snow extent over land, ice surface temperature, snow depth over sea ice and soil moisture. The mission requires a large (~7.5 m) conically scanning antenna in a geometry to provide a wide (greater than 1900 km) swath with ‘no hole at the pole’ coverage to meet user needs. It will fly in synergy with the MetOp-SG (A1 and B1) satellites to take full advantage of complementary scatterometer and microwave radiometer data – notably for surface winds where CIMR and MetOp SG-B1 measurements are phased such that they provide near seamless coverage of the ocean every day.

CIMR will also contribute significantly to monitor climate change across a number of essential climate variables, including sea surface temperature, sea ice concentration, land surface temperature, sea surface salinity, sea state, snow extent, soil water equivalent, permafrost, lakes, ice-sheets and soil moisture. The data will be useful for all the Copernicus services, including sea ice services for ship navigation, land, weather and climate.  

To learn more, read: CIMR Mission Requirements Document

ROSE-L: L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)

This L-band SAR mission will provide new information that complements and addresses gaps in existing satellite missions such as Sentinel-1. For instance, ROSE-L’s long wavelength will be able to measure surface deformation in vegetated areas currently inaccessible to missions operating with a shorter wavelength. This will greatly extend the earthquake zones and regions at risk of landslides that can be systematically monitored from space. Information from ROSE-L will also improve the accuracy of measurements of forest biomass and changes in forest cover and condition across the globe.

Other applications that benefit from the unique capabilities of ROSE-L include the mapping of soil moisture at field scale throughout the vegetation season, which will support improved agricultural crop monitoring and water use, as well as better land cover mapping. Over oceans ROSE-L will be used to monitor wave direction and wave heights, support improved vessel detection for civil security applications and pollution control. Maritime safety and security applications will benefit from its AIS capabilities. In polar regions data from ROSE-L will be put together with Sentinel-1 to improve sea ice mapping and provide new information on shipping obstacles such as ice ridges and deformed sea ice.

ROSE-L is currently expected to achieve complete coverage of Earth’s surface every six days based on two satellites. Over Europe ROSE-L is expected to image all of Europe in 3 days or less and once per day in the Arctic. The spatial resolution is expected to be better than 50 m2, or roughly 2x better than the current Sentinel-1 IWS product. ROSE-L is expected to operate in the same orbit as Sentinel-1 providing frequent and complementary SAR coverage of Europe and the world.

To learn more read: ROSE-L Mission Requirements Document