EarthCARE Processors and Products: Status Update and Outlook

The Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) is a satellite mission carried out by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to measure global profiles of aerosol, cloud and precipitation properties along with radiative fluxes and derived warming rates, with the goal of advancing our understanding of cloud-aerosol and radiation interactions and the Earth's radiative budget.

In order to fulfil its objectives, the EarthCARE mission will collect co-registered observations from a suite of four instruments located on a common platform. The optical payload encompasses the three ESA instruments, namely an ATmospheric LIDar (ATLID), a Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) and a BroadBand Radiometer (BBR). The fourth instrument, provided by JAXA, is the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR). The two active instruments (ATLID and CPR) will provide vertical profiles of the atmosphere along the satellite nadir path. The two passive instruments (BBR and MSI) will provide scene context information to support the active instruments data interpretation.

The presentation will provide an update on the status of EarthCARE processors and products prior to launch, focusing on ESA's ground science data processing chain, which includes the production of calibrated instrumental data (Level 1 data products) and retrieved geophysical data (Level 2 data products). Further, we will introduce the Data Innovation and Science Cluster (DISC) for the mission exploitation phase (E2). The DISC brings together several groups of instrument and product experts in one cluster to establish a comprehensive product quality assurance framework, including activities related to product algorithm evolution, data assimilation, calibration, validation support, and performance monitoring of ESA's EarthCARE products.