Follow the User Consultation Meeting live from Krakow, Poland, on 15–16 September as the Earth observation science community discusses the merits of the FLEX and CarbonSat mission concepts before one is finally selected to be built as ESA’s next Earth Explorer satellite.

The CarbonSat mission aims to quantify the distribution of two of the most important greenhouse gases in the atmosphere: carbon dioxide and methane. Data from the mission would lead to a better understanding of the sources and sinks of these two gases and how they are linked to climate change.

The FLEX mission aims to provide global maps of vegetation fluorescence, which can be converted into an indicator of photosynthetic activity. These data would improve our understanding of how much carbon is stored in plants and their role in the carbon and water cycles.

The User Consultation Meeting programme is as follows (subject to change):

Tuesday 15 September
08:45–09:00 Welcome and introduction

CarbonSat
09:00–09:50 Scientific presentation I (objectives, requirements)
09:50–10:45 Technical presentation (technical concept)
11:05–11:30 Break
11:30–11:55 Scientific presentation II (scientific performance)
11:55–12:05 Programmatic presentation
12:05–13:00 Q&A/discussion
13:00-14:30 Break

FLEX
14:30–15:20 Scientific presentation I (objectives, requirements)
15:20–15:55 Technical presentation (technical concept)
15:55–16:25 Break
16:25–17:00 Scientific presentation II (scientific performance)
17:00–17:20 Programmatic presentation
17:20–18:15 Q&A/discussion

Wednesday 16 September
09:00–10:30 General discussion on the two candidate Earth Explorers
10:30–11:00 Break
11:00–12:00 General discussion and summary

The meeting closes at 12:00.

(All times in CEST)