ESA’s EarthCARE mission carries a suite of instruments to answer some 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. Although clouds play an extremely important role in atmospheric heating and cooling, they remain one of the biggest mysteries – in fact the least understood factor – in our understanding of how the atmosphere drives the climate system.

EarthCARE's unique set of four instruments provide a holistic view of the interplay between clouds, aerosols and radiation.

EarthCARE is a joint venture between ESA and JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. JAXA developed the mission’s Cloud Profiling Radar instrument, which provides information on the vertical structure and internal dynamics of clouds.

Credits: ESA/ATG medialab