Activities towards future ESA Missions for operational monitoring of tropospheric Composition

In the context of the Global Monitoring of Environment and Security (GMES) initiative and the initial steps towards the next generation of Eumetsat's meteorological satellites, ESA is conducting studies preparing an operational mission to monitor atmospheric composition. Next to stratospheric ozone / surface UV and emission of Kyoto-relevant gases, one focus is on monitoring air quality. Observational requirements have been established for different user communities such as e.g. international conventions (verification of treaties and protocols), operational entities (pollution forecasting) and policy-makers (assessments supporting development of legislation / protocols). The space component of the envisaged observational system needs to extend the temporal and spatial coverage and resolution of the existing long-term system, as given by the existing and scheduled meteorological platforms.

Such a mission will build on the heritage from ERS, Envisat and Metop. In the frame of ongoing ESA activities, operational services based on data of these missions are being developed. These range from short-term UV and air quality forecasts to 10-year continuous global datasets.