Middle-Atmosphere Temperature Monitoring Addressed with a Constellation of CubeSats dedicated to Climate issues

Philippe Keckhut (1) , Alain Hauchecorne (1) , Mustapha Meftah (1) , Sergey Khaykin (1) , Chantal Claud (2) , Pierre Simoneau (3)

1 STRATO - LATMOS
2 LMD - Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539)
3 DOTA, ONERA, Université Paris Saclay [Palaiseau]

While meteorological numerical models extend upward to the mesopause, mesospheric observations are required for leading simulations and numerical weather forecasts and climate projections. This work reviews some of the challenges about temperature observation requirements and the limiting factors of the actual measurements associated with atmospheric tides. A new strategy is described here using the limb scattering technique based on previous experiments in space. Such observations can be placed on board cube-satellites. Technical issues are the large dynamic range (4 magnitudes) required for the measurements, the accuracy of the limb pointing and the level of stray light. The technique described here will expect accuracy of 1-2 K with a vertical resolution of 1-2 km. A constellation of 100 platforms could provide temperature observations with space (100 km) and time resolution (3 hours) recommended by the World Organization Meteorology, while tidal issues could be resolved with a minimum of 3-5 platforms with specific orbit maintained to avoid drifts.

Domains: Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]

Philippe Keckhut, Alain Hauchecorne, Mustapha Meftah, Sergey Khaykin, Chantal Claud, et al.. Middle-Atmosphere Temperature Monitoring Addressed with a Constellation of CubeSats dedicated to Climate issues. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 2021, 38 (3), pp.685-693. ⟨10.1175/JTECH-D-20-0046.1⟩. ⟨insu-03136030v2⟩