The European Space Agency (ESA) is defining candidate missions for Earth Observation. In the class of the Earth Explorer missions, dedicated to research and pre-operational demonstration, the Land Surface Processes and Interactions Mission (LSPIM) will acquire the accurate quantitative measurements needed to improve our understanding of the nature and evolution of biosphere-atmosphere interactions and to contribute significantly to a solution of the scaling problems for energy, water and carbon fluxes at the Earth's surface. The mission is intended to provide detailed observations of the surface of the Earth and to collect data related to ecosystem processes and radiation balance. It is also intended to address a range of issues important for environmental monitoring, renewable resources assessment and climate models. The mission involves a dedicated manoeuvring satellite which provides multi-directional observations for systematic measurement of Land Surface BRDF (Bi-Directional Reflectance Distribution Function) of selected sites on Earth. The satellite carries an optical payload : PRISM (Processes Research by an Imaging Space Mission), a multispectral imager providing reasonably high spatial resolution images (50 m over 50 km swath) in the whole optical spectral domain (from 450 nm to 2.35 im with a resolution close to 10 nm, and two thermal bands from 8. 1 to 9. 1 Mm).This paper presents the results of the Phase A study awarded by ESA, led by ALCATEL Space Industries and concerning the design of LSPIM.
cover the variation of water vapour concentration. For WALES, three ONs and one OFF are a The WAter vapour Lidar Experiment in Space good compromise. (WALES) mission aims at providing water vapour This difference in absorption at the two transmitted profiles with high accuracy and vertical resolution wavelengths leads to the determination of the through the troposphere and the lower stratosphere on a concentration of the species of interest. The DIAL global scale using an instrument based on Differential is therefore a dual-wavelength lidar in which the Absorption Lidar (DIAL) observation technique, and signals detected at the two wavelengths are mounted on an Earth orbiting satellite. processed to extract the absolute density number of This active DIAL technique will also provide data on water vapour. the cloud coverage by means of the signal reflection on Lidar detection by optical means is performed by a the cloud layers.
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