PARASOL a micro satellite in the A-Train for Earth atmospheric observations
- Paper number
IAC-05-B5.4.03
- Author
Mr. Philippe Lier, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France
- Year
2005
- Abstract
ABSTRACT : PARASOL, second satellite of the CNES micro satellite product line MYRIADE has been successfully launched from KOUROU in December 2004. The PARASOL mission purpose is to perform measurements of the polarized and multi-directional reflectances, on areas observed by the LIDAR on board CALIPSO. The Laboratoire d’Optique Atmosphérique (LOA-CNRS) in Lille is the scientific Principal Investigator for PARASOL. PARASOL is now part of the A-Train constellation with AQUA and AURA. The constellation will soon be completed with CALIPSO and CLOUDSAT. This spacecraft set will be an exceptional spatial observatory which will allow to gather an exhaustive database devoted to the climatology forecasts. This scientific goal, estimate a global Earth radiative budget, will be possible due to the data complementarities of the different sensors onboard the A-Train spacecraft. The PARASOL spacecraft has been developed by CNES which was also responsible for the development of the control center, the telemetry and telecommand ground stations, part of the ground mission center, the image performance expertise center and all the in flight operations PARASOL is a small satellite (120 kg, 100W) using the MYRIADE platform developed by CNES in order to offer opportunity for scientific or technological mission at low cost and short development time. The first mission, DEMETER, was launched successfully by DNEPR in June 2004 and is now operational. The PARASOL payload is mainly an heritage of the POLDER program : It is a camera composed of a two-dimensional CCD detector array (2100x1600 km field of view, 5.3X6.2 km nadir pixel) and a rotating wheel carrying spectral and polarized filters from blue (443nm) to near infrared (1020nm). PARASOL has been launched as an ARIANE 5 auxiliary Payload with five other small auxiliary payload in Sun synchronous orbit. This has lead to a specific station acquisition. An important goal of the PARASOL mission is to fly “in formation” with the A-TRAIN. A dedicated ascent plan has been achieved including tied coordination between PARASOL and the A-TRAIN. During this phase, the first calibrations of the camera has been realized and PARASOL is now delivering the scientific products. The paper presents the PARASOL mission and the main characteristics of the PARASOL satellite. It will recall the different steps of the development, the launch and the ascent phase in coordination with the A-TRAIN. The last part will present the first scientific results.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-05-B5.4.03.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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