Click on the image above to see a video of (a simulation of) EarthCARE in orbit

Welcome to the EarthCARE ESA Validation Portal.

This part of the EarthCARE validation website serves as introductory information for scientists interested in EarthCARE validation, and also acts as a landing page for the (restricted)  collaboration environment for the Principal Investigators of the ESA EarthCARE Validation Team (in preparation). Scientists that are interested to collaborate on EarthCARE Validation are requested to contact esa-ecvt@earthcare.esa.int in order to obtain information on how to join the EarthCARE Validation Team.

(in preparation)

Introduction to the EarthCARE mission 

EarthCARE , ESA’s Cloud and Aerosol mission developed in co-operation with JAXA, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, will address the need for a better understanding of the interactions between cloud, radiative and aerosol processes that play a role in climate regulation.

The EarthCARE mission aims to improve the representation and understanding of the Earth's radiative balance in climate and numerical weather forecast models by acquiring vertical profiles of clouds and aerosols, as well as the radiances at the top of the atmosphere. Aerosols control cloud properties, while clouds control the production of precipitation and convection influences stratospheric humidity. The observations of EarthCARE will therefore lead to more reliable climate predictions and better weather forecasts through the improved representation of processes involving clouds, aerosol and radiation.

The satellite will weigh about 1.7 tonnes and will be placed in a quasi-polar orbit of 97° inclination at an altitude of about 400 kilometres. Its launch is scheduled for 2013. The four instruments of the payload consist of an Atmospheric Lidar, a Broad-Band Radiometer and a Multi-Spectral Imager developed by ESA, and a Cloud Profiling Radar developed by JAXA This instrument suite has been optimised to provide co-located samples of the state of the atmosphere along the satellite flight track.


News

  • The EarthCARE target launch date is June 2022. 


EarthCARE Mission resources

Further information about the EarthCARE mission in general can be obtained from the following resources:



EarthCARE Validation

The geophysical validation of EarthCARE involves a suite of correlative instruments and methods. This portal provides an overview of the validation activitiesThe contributions are resulting from the responses to the 2017 ESA Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for the Validation of EarthCARE. 

The contributions have been presented and reviewed during the 1st ESA EarthCARE Validation Workshop in June 2018 in Bonn, Germany

The scientists in the EarthCARE validation team will collaborate with ESA algorithm and instrument experts and will be provided with preliminary EarthCARE data products as soon as available, hence well before public release of the consolidated data products.

Scientists that are interested in collaboration and joining the ESA EarthCARE Validation Team are requested to contact esa-ecvt@earthcare.esa.int


EarthCARE Validation Resources

Websites

Documents

Meetings/Workshops