UK teams developing new ways of monitoring Earth's climate from space

6 Sep 2011 03:12 PM

Teams of scientists and engineers have been awarded contracts worth more than £500,000 to develop new satellite technologies for observing the Earth from space. 

The Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation (CEOI), with funding from the UK Space Agency, has awarded contracts to eight industrial and academic teams around the UK. 

The two largest projects will develop technologies for measuring the makeup of the Earth’s atmosphere, providing data for use by climatologists and for the next generation of weather forecasting satellites. The first will be led by the STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the second by Astrium Ltd.

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory will test the technology to measure the effect on the climate of biomass burning and industrial pollution. The tests will also check that the instruments can survive the severe shaking that it will experience during launch and that it will continue to work properly at both the extreme temperatures and vacuum of space.

More information can be found on the CEOI website (link opens in a new window).

The full press release is available in PDF format (PDF - link opens in a new window).