European Space Agency – Space for Kids

June 13, 2024

Understanding Earth’s climate is incredibly important and now scientists have a special new tool to help them: the European Space Agency’s EarthCARE satellite! The satellite began its journey into space on May 29, 2024, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Just 10 minutes after launch, the satellite separated from the rocket and a signal was quickly received that the satellite was safely in orbit about 400 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.

EarthCARE solar panels deployed! Source: ESA/ATG medialab.

EarthCARE stands for Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer. It’s a mission to observe our planet from space and gather information about how interactions occur between clouds, aerosols (tiny particles like dust and pollutants that float in Earth’s atmosphere) and radiation.

We see clouds in the sky above us all the time, but did you know that they play an important role in how Earth’s atmosphere warms and cools? They reflect energy from the sun back into space, which has a cooling effect on our planet; but they also trap infrared energy from the Earth, making it warmer! Whether clouds are cooler or warmer depends on many factors, such as their size, location, and how much water they contain.

Earth’s atmosphere also contains many aerosols, and human activities such as transportation and agriculture can add more. Aerosols allow clouds to form, but they also reflect and trap heat in much the same way that clouds do.

How clouds, aerosols and radiation combine to influence our climate is incredibly complex, which is why we need EarthCARE to better understand it. The satellite has four high-tech instruments that all work together:

• Airborne Lidar, which measures clouds and aerosols in Earth’s atmosphere.
• Cloud profiler radar, which allows EarthCARE to see what clouds look like inside.
• Multispectral imaging, which captures very detailed images at different wavelengths of light.
• Broadband radiometer, which measures solar radiation reflected into space and infrared radiation coming from Earth.

Find out more about EarthCARE’s four special instruments. Source: ESA/ATG medialab.

EarthCARE is now operating from ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. In the coming months, careful checks will be made to see if the satellite is performing as expected. Scientists are excited to start exploring the information EarthCARE will collect!

Fun fact: EarthCARE is a joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)!