The Earth Climate Observatory (ECO) space mission concept for themonitoring of the Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI)
- 1Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Flanders Make, Applied Physics and Photonics, Brussels Photonics (B-PHOT), Brussels, Belgium (lien.smeesters@vub.be)
- 2Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium (steven.dewitte@oma.be)
- 3Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden (thorsten.mauritsen@misu.su.se)
Monitoring the Earth Radiation Budget (ERB) and in particular the Earth
Energy Imbalance (EEI), is of paramount importance for a predictive
understanding of global climate change. We propose the new Earth
Climate Observatory (ECO) space mission concept for the monitoring of
the EEI.
The EEI is defined as the small difference between the two nearly equal
terms of the incoming solar radiation, and the outgoing terrestrial
radiation lost to space. Making a significant measurement of the EEI
from space is very challenging, and requires a differential measurement
with one single instrument of both the incoming solar radiation and the
outgoing terrestrial radiation. The instrument that allows such a
differential measurement is an improved wide field of view electrical
substitution cavity radiometer.
The wide field of view radiometer will observe the earth from limb to
limb. A single measurement footprint is a circle with a diameter around
6300 km. For the discrimination of cloudy and clear skies, a higher
spatial resolution is needed. This will be obtained from two wide field
of view cameras, a visible wide field of view camera for the
characterisation of the spatial distribution of the reflected solar
radiation, and a thermal infrared wide field of view camera for the
characterisation of the spatial distribution of the emitted thermal
radiation.
How to cite: Smeesters, L., Dewitte, S., and Mauritsen, T.: The Earth Climate Observatory (ECO) space mission concept for themonitoring of the Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI) , EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-12178, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-12178, 2023.
