EarthCARE Campaigns Status

Assuring the data quality of the ESA’s EarthCARE science products is a comprehensive collaborative effort. It is being realised by contributions from the independent EarthCARE validation team (ECVT) as well as monitoring-, calibration- and airborne campaign activities performed under ESA (co-)management or coordinated with ESA.

Airborne and other field campaigns with EarthCARE-like as well complementary in-situ have payloads have played and continue to play an essential role in stabilizing and improving the quality of the of the EarthCARE’s user products.

EarthCARE is ESA’s most complex Earth Explorer mission to date, in collaboration with JAXA. For the sake of validating the various single and multi-sensor products from the lidar, radar, imager and radiometer,  the number of airborne underflights achieved during EarthCARE’s first 2 years in orbit significantly exceeds those typical for EO missions and is complemented by comparisons with a multitude of ground-based and shipborne instruments worldwide, intercomparisons with other satellites, and analysis involving numerical weather and air quality models. The success of these activities enabled the swift improvement and public release of all scientific EarthCARE products within a year after commissioning.

The presentation will provide the status of EarthCARE campaigns by giving an overview of the activities and selected key findings during its first 2 years in orbit as well as an outlook of what is planned.