Making sure ESA’s cloud and aerosol satellite is aerosol-free

A few weeks ago, a team of engineers carefully extracted ESA’s EarthCARE satellite from its protective transport container, initiating a meticulous process of inspection, testing and preparation for its liftoff later this month from the Vandenberg launch site in California.

Amidst an extensive checklist of tasks, was a rigorous effort to guarantee that the satellite is in pristine condition, underscoring the thorough attention to detail essential to making the satellite ready for launch.

Checking that EarthCARE is immaculately clean is paramount to optimizing the performance of its four instruments.

This set of instruments will shed new light on the interplay between clouds, aerosols, incoming solar energy and outgoing radiation, which together regulate Earth’s climate.

Aerosols are small particles, such as dust, suspended in the air.

While we all know that dust gets everywhere, thanks to the team’s painstaking work, they verified that EarthCARE is dust-free by turning off the cleanroom lights and using UV light for their inspections.

With the task of cleaning done and dusted, EarthCARE now stands on the verge of being fueled, marking a significant milestone in its journey to space.

Prior to the satellite being cleaned, one of the earlier tasks involved opening the satellite’s cloud profiling radar antenna, which spans 2.5 m across.

This instrument, provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is engineered to penetrate clouds to yield detailed insights into their vertical structure, velocity, particle size and distribution, and water content.

The propulsion team from the U.K. has also arrived, and is now preparing for the hazardous job of fueling the satellite before it is eventually encapsulated in the Falcon 9 rocket fairing.