Constellation of small satellites for the monitoring of greenhouse gases

The Space CARBon Observatory project (SCARBO), is a project funded by the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme, which aims at solving one of the key challenges of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHG) monitoring from space, by increasing significantly the temporal revisit over the various sites of interest while meeting the accuracy and spatial resolution requirements. This is envisaged by implementing a novel miniaturised static spectrometer concept on a constellation of small satellites, coupled with aerosol sensors and high-end reference instruments. The 3-year project started in December 2017. It is coordinated by Airbus Defence and Space, and handled by a consortium of 8 European organisations, including scientific institutes, SMEs and industry. The challenge of the project is to overcome the current technological and economical roadblocks of existing GHG missions: measurement uncertainties due to aerosols, provision of both high accuracy measurements and high temporal frequency of GHG measurements within a reasonable cost envelope. The SCARBO project foresees the detailed design, analysis and modelling of the miniaturised GHG-monitoring spectro-imaging instrument, called NanoCarb, together with a mission architecture study based on specific user requirements as well as on the identification of synergies with the potential new CO₂ Monitoring Copernicus mission. The overall measurement concept will be experimentally validated through a dedicated airborne campaign in May 2020 featuring instrument prototypes. A market analysis will also be performed to assess the commercial perspectives of the SCARBO mission services at continental, regional and local scales. The SCARBO mission added-value will be demonstrated through the analysis of real-life use cases representative of CO₂ and CH₄ related issues. The technological development of miniaturised sensors together with the definition of mission concepts using small satellites can lead to a significant cost reduction in terms manufacturing and launch with respect to standard monolithic large spacecraft. Such system, in conjunction with the incumbent high-performance international greenhouse gases missions, including Copernicus, would pave the way for Europe to trace anthropogenic CO₂ and CH₄ emissions offering unprecedented measurement repetitiveness over the entire globe.