EGU24-20214, updated on 08 Apr 2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-20214
EGU General Assembly 2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

The Changing-Atmosphere Infra-Red Tomography Explorer (CAIRT) Earth Explorer 11 candidate mission

Bernd Funke1, Martyn Chipperfield2, Quentin Errera3, Felix Friedl-Vallon4, Sophie Godin-Beekmann5, Michael Hoepfner4, Alex Hoffmann6, Alizee Malavart6, Scott Osprey7, Inna Polichtchouk8, Peter Preusse9, Piera Raspollini10, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber4, Pekka Verronen11,12, and Kaley Walker13
Bernd Funke et al.
  • 1Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), Glorieta de la Astronomía, Granada, Spain (bernd@iaa.es)
  • 2University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
  • 3Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Belgium
  • 4Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
  • 5Sorbonne Université LATMOS/IPSL, Paris, France
  • 6ESA ESTEC, The Netherlands
  • 7University of Oxford, UK
  • 8ECMWF, UK
  • 9Forschungszentrum Juelich, Germany
  • 10IFAC/CNR, Italy
  • 11University of Oulu, Finland
  • 12Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland
  • 13University of Toronto, Canada

The Changing-Atmosphere Infra-Red Tomography Explorer (CAIRT) is currently in Phase A as one of two final candidates for ESA’s Earth Explorer 11. As a Fourier transform infrared limb imager, CAIRT will observe simultaneously from the middle troposphere to the lower thermosphere at high spectral resolution and with unprecedented horizontal and vertical resolution. With this, CAIRT will provide critical information on (a) atmospheric gravity waves, circulation and mixing, (b) coupling with the upper atmosphere, solar variability and space weather and, (c) aerosols and pollutants in the upper troposphere and  lower stratosphere. In this presentation we will give an overview of CAIRT’s science goals and the expected mission performance, based on latest results from feasibility studies performed during Phase 0. 

How to cite: Funke, B., Chipperfield, M., Errera, Q., Friedl-Vallon, F., Godin-Beekmann, S., Hoepfner, M., Hoffmann, A., Malavart, A., Osprey, S., Polichtchouk, I., Preusse, P., Raspollini, P., Sinnhuber, B.-M., Verronen, P., and Walker, K.: The Changing-Atmosphere Infra-Red Tomography Explorer (CAIRT) Earth Explorer 11 candidate mission, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-20214, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-20214, 2024.