The TanSat Mission: Global CO2 Observation and Monitoring
- Paper number
IAC-12,B4,4,12,x14634
- Author
Dr. Wen Chen, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, China
- Coauthor
Dr. Yonghe ZHANG, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, China
- Coauthor
Prof. Zengshan YIN, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, China
- Coauthor
Prof. Zhongdong YANG, National Satellite Meteorological Center, China
- Coauthor
Prof. Yuquan ZHENG, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, China
- Coauthor
Prof. Changxiang YAN, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, China
- Coauthor
Prof. Yi LIU, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
- Year
2012
- Abstract
The TanSat mission is a Chinese Earth Observation project managed in the national 863 program by the Ministry of Science and Technology. The main objective of the TanSat is to retrieve the atmosphere column-averaged CO2 dry air mole fraction (XCO2) with precisions of 1\% (4ppm) on national and global scales. TanSat is a small-sized satellite(around 500kg), consisting of an agile platform and two scientific instruments. A high-resolution spectrometer (CO2 Sounder) is designed to measure the near-infrared absorption by CO2 at 1.61 and 2.06 microns and the molecular oxygen (O2) A-band in reflected sunlight at 0.76 microns, with spatial resolution of 2*1km2. A Cloud and Aerosol Polarimetry Imager (CAPI) is used to compensate CO2 measurement errors which are caused by cloud and aerosol, based on the high-resolution measurement at 0.38, 0.67, 0.87, 1.38 and 1.64 microns. Moreover, CAPI is able to perform polarimetry measurement at 0.67 and 1.64 microns in multi angles to retrieve accurate cloud and aerosol data. These two instruments are integratedly designed and assembled on the platform as a whole. The platform is characterized by its agility, in order to perform principle-plane constrained nadir and sun-glint observation, target gazing observation, as well as sun and moon observation for instrument calibration. Flying in a 1:30 PM sun-synchronous orbit at 700km, TanSat will collect more than 800 could-free observations per orbit, which will be incorporated with other environmental measurements to retrieve columnar density distribution of CO2. A network of ground CO2 monitoring bases will also be established, to validate the space-based XCO2 measurement by correlating retrieval models. With a designed lifetime of three years following the expected launch in 2015, TanSat will deliver valuable data of the atmospheric CO2, provide first-hand information to understand the relation between the human activities and CO2, and enable accurate predictions of future increases in atmospheric CO2 and its impact on the climate. This paper will give an overview introduction of the TanSat mission, including its mission objectives, observation scenario, the overall system architecture, and scientific instruments and platform design.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
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