One of the last jobs to do before ESA’s EarthCARE satellite is packed up for shipment to the US launch site is to make sure it is very clean. The photograph shows engineers carrying out this important task. The satellite has spent the last few months at Airbus’ facilities in Friedrichshafen, Germany, undergoing the last checks the satellite has in Europe.
EarthCARE carries a suite of instruments to answer critical scientific questions related to the role that clouds and aerosols play in reflecting incident solar radiation back out to space and trapping infrared radiation emitted from Earth’s surface.