ESA awards contract to Airbus UK for TRUTHS predevelopment
ESA and Airbus UK have signed a contract for the TRUTHS satellite mission. Under the contract, Airbus UK will lead the ‘system feasibility and predevelopment’ phase of this new mission. When launched this new mission will establish a climate and calibration observing system to improve confidence in climate-change forecasts.
TRUTHS is short for Traceable Radiometry Underpinning Terrestrial and Helio Studies, and was proposed by the UK through ESA’s Earth Observation Earth Watch programme.
The mission will collect measurements of incoming solar radiation and solar radiation reflected from Earth's surface, traced to an absolute metrological reference. These data will then be used to improve climate datasets and to calibrate observations from other satellites.
To do this, the TRUTHS satellite will carry a cryogenic solar absolute radiometer and a hyperspectral imaging sensor.
Richard Franklin, Managing Director of Airbus Defence and Space in the UK said, “Validating data on Earth’s changing climate is at the heart of this exciting mission, which will have a profound impact on future studies.
“It will provide the gold standard of calibration for space-based Earth observation – a kind of standards laboratory in space. For the first time, the international scientific community will be able to cross-reference their measurements and data, enabling much more accurate forecasts and analysis, especially from the European Copernicus programme.”
ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Josef Aschbacher, added, “We are thrilled to have signed the contract with Airbus that will define the mission system implementation concept as well as focus on the preparation of critical technologies prior to implementing the mission’s full development, which we envisage in 2023.
“The benchmark data that TRUTHS will supply are going to bring real benefits for climate science – and we will be extremely proud to have it in our suite of satellite missions.”
UK Science Minister, Amanda Solloway, noted, “Data has been one of our most powerful and versatile weapons against coronavirus, and it is among our most potent weapons in countering climate change.
“This mission, with Airbus leading the charge, will not only give us the first ever absolute measurement of the light reflected off Earth’s surface, it will reduce the uncertainty in future climate projections while arming our scientists with the most reliable data and insight we have ever had access to.”
