EarthCARE operations and data processing
The EarthCARE ground segment comprises flight operations, data acquisition, archiving and dissemination, and JAXA’s ground segment for processing data from the satellite’s Cloud Profiling Radar.
ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, is responsible for the satellite operations, the orbit control and on-board software maintenance. Tracking, telemetry and command signals are sent and received via the S-band ground stations in Kiruna in Sweden, the ‘North Pole Satellite Station’ in Alaska in the US, and Norway’s Troll station in Antarctica.
ESA’s Centre for Earth Observation (ESRIN) in Frascati in Italy is responsible for processing and archiving of the science data. These data are downlinked via X-band to the Kiruna Ground Station in Sweden and to the Inuvik ground station in Canada.
ESA’s team in Frascati also handles the exchange of data with the JAXA ground segment, and disseminates ESA and JAXA science data products to ESA’s data users.
The JAXA ground segment is responsible for processing the Cloud Profiling Radar data from Level-0 to Level-1. JAXA also supports this instrument’s calibration, operations and planning. In addition, JAXA produces Japanese science products, handles data exchange with the ESA Payload Data Ground Segment and disseminates JAXA and ESA science data products to JAXA’s data users.
The volume of data per orbit are significant. According to current estimates, the data product volume per orbit (92 minutes) is in the order of 1.5GB for Level-0 data, 20 GB for Level-1 data and 50 GB for the set of recommended Level-2 data (which excludes the more experimental processors).
While Level-0 data will not be distributed beyond ESA and JAXA, Level-1 and Level-2 data are made available by ESA to users according to ESA’s data policy.
