MEASMA-LEO
“The Monitoring of atmospheric constituents and their Isotopologues by Solar Occultation”
MEASMA-LEO is constellation of CubeSats in low earth orbit that will offer global coverage and measurements of atmospheric constituents in the “Thermal Infrared (TIR) and Visible/ Near-Infrared (VIS/NIR) spectral bands with a vertical resolution of 3km, over an altitude of 6 to 80km. The payloads’ innovative technology, developed by RAL-Space UK, utilized miniaturised laser heterodyne spectroscopy to perform solar occultation measurements of the atmosphere. The MEASMA-LEO data will supplement the data from MEASMA-GEO.
MEASMA-LEO Science Overview
- High-resolution Atmospheric transmittance spectroscopy.
- Primary Instrument: TIR (8-12 μm) laser heterodyne spectro-radiometry.
- Secondary Instrument: VIS/NIR (588 – 870 nm) hyperspectral imager.
- Monitoring composition of both the Upper Troposphere (UTS) and Stratosphere: radiatively active gases, stratosphere-troposphere Exchanges tracers, ozone chemistry gases, aerosols and clouds, as well as their precursors.
- The UTS being the most sensitive to climate change.
- High Spectral resolution: O, O2, O3, N2, N2O, NNO, H2O, HDO, CH3D, CH4, and COC
- Capable of measuring rapid vertical and horizontal variations in the abundances of trace gases and aerosol around the tropopause
MEASMA-LEO Applications Overview:
- Atmospheric composition used as a strong indicator of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and pollution precursors.
- Will help resolve challenges in trend detection with a knock-on effect on estimates of their climate impact, and will help answer:
- How does water vapor in the UTS responding to climate change and impact on climate?
- How does climate change affect stratospheric ozone and its recovery?
- How can surface emission estimates of GHG and surface ozone be improved by improving their UTS representation?
- How does the composition of the tropical UTS and its response to increasing anthropogenic and natural emissions change?
