MicroCarb optical instrument calibration
Satellite-based validation methods are essential for delivering long-term trust in the global emission reporting system used to track progress towards goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement.
Indeed, in December of that year, and after an extensive feasibility and tendering process by the French National Centre for Space Research (CNES), the MicroCarb micro- satellite concept was presented at the Paris Climate Change Conference (COP21) with a mission to map, on a global scale, sources and sinks of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas. AIRBUS Defence and Space won the contract to develop an onboard instrument to quantify global and local CO2 emissions. However, distinguishing human from natural sources will require additional knowledge of carbon cycles. Critical to mission success will be effective pre-flight calibration and validation of onboard instruments, but available methods were costly, complex, and time-consuming.
NPL’s first major customer for the STAR-CC-OGSE test suite was Airbus Defence and Space, the prime contractor for the MicroCarb Instrument.
In December 2020, RAL Space’s onboard Pointing and Calibration System and the STAR-cc-OGSE were delivered to Airbus Defence and Space’s facility in Toulouse, France. Over an extensive 56-day testing period from September 2022, the MicroCarb instrument’s optical performance was checked and validated for geometric, spectral, and radiometric performance using STAR-CC-OGSE. At the same time, the thermal performance of the cryostat cooling system was verified at 150 kelvin (-123.5°C).
Then, in January 2023, the successfully calibrated and characterised MicroCarb instrument was delivered to Thales Alenia Space UK for mounting on the Myriade spacecraft bus, ahead of its launch onboard a Vega C rocket in 2025.