CNES program status

1
CNES program status

• Prepared by E. Thouvenot, CNES
• August 2007

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CNES Strategy in Oceanography

• Contribute to operational outcome of altimetry
    TOPEX/POSEIDON gt JASON1 gt JASON2/OSTM
  gtJASON3 ERS 1 2 gt ENVISAT gt SENTINEL3
  CORIOLIS, MERCATOR/COO/ECOMF, ...
• Continue research activities for future
  altimetry missions/instruments (AltiKa,
  WSOA, Water,)
• Contribute to space measurements of other ocean
  physical parameters
• - salinity SMOS, CNES contribution to ESA
  project
• - directional wave spectrum (SWIM/CFOSAT)
  - ocean colour (SSO or GEO)
• Prepare ocean applications of ORFEO (Cosmo
  SkyMed/Pleiades) mainly coastal applications

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CNES involvment in altimetry
Reference mission Ocean Large scale
Complementing mission mesoscale, ice
Earth reference system
1990
experiment
ERS-1 (ESA) Altimeter algorithm
TOPEX/POSEIDON (CNES/NASA) Launcher DORIS
POSEIDON Mission Center
ERS-2 (ESA)
2000
ENVISAT (ESA) DORIS Altimeter Processing Archive
distrib.
Jason-1 (CNES/NASA) Satellite bus DORIS
POSEIDON Control Mission Center
2005
HY-2 (CNSA) DORIS ?
Jason-2 / OSTM (CNES/NASA/EUMETSAT/NOAA) Satellit
e bus DORIS POSEIDON Control Mission Center
ALTIKA/SARAL (CNES/ISRO) Altimeter, radiometer,
DORIS, Lra Process, archive distrib.
PLEIADES (CNES) DORIS
2010
CRYOSAT2 (ESA) DORIS
SALP Altimetry and precise positioning service
operational
MERCATOR assimilation, forecast CNES / SHOM /
METEOFRANCE / IFREMER / CNRS / IRD
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Status of altimetry missions/activities

• TOPEX/POSEIDON
• Stopped after more than 13 years of ocean
  observations
• Jason1/TOPEX tandem mission success !
• ENVISAT
• excellent synergy with Jason1 (T/P and ERS
  complementarity further improved)
• DORIS
• 5 DORIS receivers simultaneously in flight
  earth reference system strengthened
• MERCATOR
• inter Agency structure for the implementation of
  an oceanographic forecasting center in Europe in
  the mid term (GMES Marine Core Service)
• AltiKa Implementation phase approved. Launch
  possible from end-2009.
• SALP/SSALTO/AVISO multi-mission ground segment
• Next Step possible contribution(s) to
  HY-2A/Water/SENTINEL3/JASON3 (TBD)

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AVISO Data user teams
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Jason1

• Qualified in orbit
• Operational mission underway
• Products distributed routinely
• CNES operations funded through SALP
• Required lifetime 3 years (achieved in
  december, 2004)
• Extended mission 5 years (achieved in december,
  2006)
• Extension agreement for 5 more years of operation
  signed between CNES NASA on december, 2006

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Jason2/OSTM

• Cooperative Framework between NOAA/NASA/EUMETSAT/C
  NES
• basic mission, continuation of Jason1 (Core
  Mission)
• Technological passengers to enhance DORIS
  performance (CARMEN2/LPT, T2L2)
• 4-party MoU
• CNES/EUMETSAT agreement
• LPT CNES/JAXA MoU
• Launch date june 15, 2008

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SARAL/AltiKa

• Program approved on december, 2005
• Altimetric Gap filler between ENVISAT SENTINEL3
• Research oriented mission - new, higher
  frequency, greater performance - potential new
  applications on ice, land, coast areas
• but with a consolidated architecture
  conventional altimeter
• Cooperative framework CNES/ISRO
• Initially, AltiKa wa supposed to be embarked on
  OCEANSAT3 mission (with other ocean-dedicated
  sensors)
• However, delay on OCEANSAT3 schedule
• May/June 2006 CNESISRO proposition to embark
  AltiKa payload with Argos3, on a new platform,
  named SSB (Small Satellite Bus), which is
  presently being developed by ISRO.
• July2006/November2006 CNESISRO technical
  studies to assess the feasibility ok
• Confirmation of CNESISRO cooperation on this new
  baseline obtained on December 2006 SARAL
  mission (Satellite with ARgos ALtika)
• CNES/ISRO MOUs signed in february, 2007
• Tentative launch date end-2009/early-2010
• Data policy the same as JASON missions
  (through CNES/ISRO RAs)

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AltiKa performance
Large improvement wrt current altimetry missions
- altimetric noise 3 times better on ocean-
very good coastal and inland (rivers, lakes)
performance - main limitation of AltiKa
non-operationality for rain rate gt several mm/h
(5 to 10 of time depending on the geographic
area), however not a constraint when associated
to JASON2
Comparison of tracking performance on western
Corsica coastline -AltiKa alone (at
left) -AltiKa DIODE/DORIS (at right)
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Status of altimetry programs
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Next Steps

• HY-2A CNES/CNSA discussions underway
• Payload Dual frequency altimeter, nadir
  3-frequency radiometer, 5-frequency scanning
  radiometer, scanning scatterometer,
  DORIS/GPS/LRA
• Orbit SSO 6am-6pm, 14 days (after 1-year
  geodetic mission)
• Launch 2009
• JASON3
• NOAA/EUMETSAT cooperation with EC, CNES NASA
  (TBC) contributions
• CNES in-kind contribution Proteus platform and
  project team equivalent to JASON/OSTM (i.e. about
  one third of European part of the program)
• Launch end-2012
• WATER (or SWOT) CNES/NASA discussions underway
• Ku/C nadir altimeter (SRAL) Ka-band wide-swath
  SAR-altimeter
• Phase 0 in 2007 (CNES/JPL)
• Cooperation scheme TBD
• Launch 2013-2016 timeframe
• and contributions to ESA/EC missions Cryosat2,
  Sentinel3 (TBD)

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Future mission with a new parameter measured from
Space SMOS Soil Moisture and Salinity
Mission
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SMOS Soil Moisture and Salinity Mission

• ESA Mission Earth Explorer Opportunity
  Mission
• Cooperation between ESA / CDTI / CNES

• Science Objectives
• - Soil Moisture
• - Ocean surface salinity

• Phase C/D in progress
• Launch 2nd semester 2008
• CNES IFREMER will develop the CATDS (L3/L4
  processing center)