ESA’s EarthCARE mission carries a suite of instruments to answer critical scientific questions related to the role that clouds and aerosols play in reflecting incident solar radiation back out to space and trapping infrared radiation emitted from Earth’s surface. Although clouds play an extremely important role in atmospheric heating and cooling, they remain one of the biggest mysteries – in fact the least understood factor – in our understanding of how the atmosphere drives the climate system.

EarthCARE's unique set of four instruments provides a holistic view of the interplay between clouds, aerosols and radiation.

Its cloud profiling radar provides information on the vertical structure and internal dynamics of clouds, its atmospheric lidar provides cloud-top information and profiles of thin clouds and aerosols, its multispectral imager provides a wide-scene overview in multiple wavelengths, and its broadband radiometer measures reflected solar radiation and outgoing infrared radiation.

The fact that these different measurements are all taken at the same time allows scientists to better understand Earth’s radiation balance.

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