ATLID, ESA atmospheric LIDAR: integration of instrument and tests

Abstract

The ATmospheric LIDar (Light Detection and Ranging), ATLID, is part of the payload of the Earth Cloud and Aerosol Explorer (EarthCARE) mission, the sixth Earth Explorer Mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) Living Planet Program. After the successful major step of optical and electrical integration, ATLID has started its performance and functional testing in Toulouse Airbus Defence and Space. The emission part of the instrument has been operated with both TxA (Laser transmitter units) delivered from Leonardo team: as major achievement the main performance of both flight lasers have been tested and confirmed with more than 40mJ UV emission @51Hz with operation via instrument control ACDM flight unit (ATLID control and data management). Tests are parallelized with on one side the EFM test (Electrical Flight Model), and on the other side the OFM tests (Optical flight model). The EFM tests aim at validating the functional and electrical architecture via functional testing on each nominal and redundant path with all the flight electronic units and laser sources. The OFM tests aims validating the receiver alignment from telescope input till fiber detectors, the field of view of the three detection channels and their radiometric performance. OFM vibration tests have been performed and have validated design stability against mechanical loads. End of OFM and EFM tests is planned at summer 2018 and will give go ahead for instrument assembly in its final ATLID PFM configuration with laser cooling system integration. After Ambient performance testing, the environmental test campaign immediately start with EMC, mechanical and thermal vacuum testing.

ESA Atmospheric LIDAR (ATLID) testing, qualification, and calibration

“…Since the completion of the full instrument assembly in 2019 [9], ATLID has been subjected to an ambient performance test campaign [10][11], followed by a successful environmental qualification test campaign, including performance calibration and characterization in thermal vacuum conditions. ATLID has been successfully operated as a self-standing instrument and all performance aspects, including transmitter and receiver characteristics, have been found to be in line with targeted expectations and compliant with all major science, in-flight, end of life, performance requirements.…”

“…The early ATLID instrument integration verification steps have been described in [9][10] [11]; prior to its final integration and coupling, an optical flight model and an electrical flight model have been developed and tested in parallel.…”

ATmospheric LIDar (ATLID): European Space Agency Instrument Ready to Measure Aerosols and Thin Clouds in Atmosphere

“…With the completion of the full instrument assembly in 2019 [8], ATLID has been subjected to an ambient performance test campaign [9,10], followed by a successful environmental qualification test campaign, including performance calibration and characterisation in thermal vacuum conditions. ATLID has been successfully operated as a self-standing instrument and all performance aspects, including transmitter and receiver characteristics, have been found to be in line with targeted expectations and compliant with all major science, in-flight, end of life, performance requirements.…”

ATmospheric LIDar (ATLID): Pre-Launch Testing and Calibration of the European Space Agency Instrument That Will Measure Aerosols and Thin Clouds in the Atmosphere

“…EarthCARE payload comprises three instruments provided by ESA: a High Spectral Resolution UV ATmospheric LIDar (ATLID) [7][8][9][10][11], a Multi-spectral Imager (MSI) and a Broad-Band Radiometer (BBR) [12]; and the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) [13] with Doppler capability, provided by JAXA. The two active payloads, a LIDAR and a radar, penetrate into clouds and collect data, at a microscopic level, on atmospheric constituents and their movement.…”

“…The instrument viewing geometry can be seen in Figure 2, which illustrates the satellite ground track, the CPR beam at normal nadir, the ATLID beam de-pointed backward by 3° to reduce any specular reflection, the across track swath of the MSI with The EarthCARE payload consists of four instruments that will, in a synergetic manner, retrieve vertical profiles of clouds and aerosols, and the characteristics of the radiative and micro-physical properties, to determine flux gradients within the atmosphere as well as top of atmosphere radiance and flux. Specifically, EarthCARE scientific objectives are: EarthCARE payload comprises three instruments provided by ESA: a High Spectral Resolution UV ATmospheric LIDar (ATLID) [7][8][9][10][11], a Multi-spectral Imager (MSI) and a Broad-Band Radiometer (BBR) [12]; and the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) [13] with Doppler capability, provided by JAXA. The two active payloads, a LIDAR and a radar, penetrate into clouds and collect data, at a microscopic level, on atmospheric constituents and their movement.…”