EarthCARE (derived fromEarthCloud,Aerosol andRadiationExplorer), nicknamedHakuryū (Japanese for "white dragon"),[4] is a joint European/Japanese (ESA /JAXA /NICT) satellite, the sixth of ESA'sEarth Explorer Programme.[1][5] The main goal of the mission is the observation and characterization ofclouds andaerosols as well as measuring the reflectedsolar radiation and theinfrared radiation emitted from Earth's surface and atmosphere.[6][7][8]
As the prime contractor,Astrium was responsible for the satellite's design, development and integration.[9] Design and construction began in early 2009.[10] As of January 2011, the total budget for the project was £500 million (€590 million/US$810 million).[10] A significant proportion of the project was be manufactured in the UK, the main structure of the spacecraft was built byRUAG Space in Switzerland and subsequently completed in Astrium'sStevenage facility, while one of the instruments was made inSevenoaks bySSTL and another inBristol, Somerset by SEA Group Ltd, now part ofThales Alenia Space UK.[10]
In 2024 and 2025,CNES was conducting aerial campaigns withstratospheric baloons and aircraft overCape Verde andFrance, in order to validate EarthCARE’s observations with data collected closer to surface.[15]
In January 2025, the mission’s first level data stream has been made freely available by ESA after EarthCARE finished its commissioning phase at the end of 2024.[16]
In March 2025, EarthCARE’s Level-2 data products have been made fully available. These products contain the properties of the atmosphere estimated from the mission’s measurements.[17]
The aims of the mission are to improve understanding of thecloud,radiative andaerosol processes that affect the Earth's climate.[18] The mission is providing a picture of the 3-dimensional spatial and the temporal structure of the radiative flux field at the top of the atmosphere, within the atmosphere and at the Earth's surface. The high-performance lidar andradar technology, plus the synergistic use of the differentremote sensing techniques on board EarthCARE, is delivering datasets allowing scientists to study the relationship of clouds, aerosols, and radiation at accuracy levels that will significantly improve our understanding of these highly-variable parameters. The mission is providing this information to improve predictions about the weather and future climate.[19]
The satellite is making measurements useful for a better understanding of theEarth's thermal and solar radiation balance. In particular, a combination of active (lidar and radar) and passive (radiometers and imagers) instruments enable EarthCARE to simultaneously measure the vertical and horizontal distribution of clouds andatmosphericaerosols along with top-of-atmosphere (TOA)long- and short-wavefluxes.
The spacecraft features four distinct instruments:[1]
ATmospheric LIDar (ATLID) - ESA / Airbus space Toulouse - 354.8 nm, high-spectral resolution and depolarisation (aerosols).
Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) - JAXA / NICT - 36dBZ sensitivity, 500 m horizontal and 100 m vertical sampling resolution, Doppler capability (clouds). Operating at 94.05 GHz.[20]
Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) - ESA - 7 channels, 150 km swath, 500 m pixel resolution (clouds and aerosols).
Broad-Band Radiometer (BBR) - ESA - 2 channels, 3 views (nadir, fore and aft) (radiations).
Scale model of the satelliteEarthCARE solar wing deployed during testingInspecting satellite’s 11 metre solar wing in its folded configuration
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
