The UVSQ-SAT/INSPIRESat-5 CubeSat Mission: First In-Orbit Measurements of the Earth’s Outgoing Radiation

Mustapha Meftah (1) , Thomas Boutéraon (2) , Christophe Dufour (2) , Alain Hauchecorne (1) , Philippe Keckhut (1) , Adrien Finance (2, 3) , Slimane Bekki (1) , Sadok Abbaki (2) , Emmanuel Bertran (2) , Luc Damé (4) , Jean-Luc Engler (2) , Patrick H. M. Galopeau (4) , Pierre Gilbert (2) , Laurent Lapauw (2) , Alain Sarkissian (1) , André-Jean Vieau (2) , Patrick Lacroix (2) , Nicolas Caignard (2) , Xavier Arrateig (4) , Odile Hembise Fanton d’Andon (3) , Antoine Mangin (3) , Jean-Paul Carta (5) , Fabrice Boust (6) , Michel Mahé (7) , Christophe Mercier (8)

1 STRATO - LATMOS
2 LATMOS - Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales
3 ACRI-ST - Analytic and Computational Research, Inc. - Earth Sciences
4 HELIOS - LATMOS
5 Carta-Rouxel
6 DEMR, ONERA, Université Paris Saclay [Palaiseau]
7 Radio-club de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines F6KRK
8 AMSAT-Francophone

UltraViolet & infrared Sensors at high Quantum efficiency onboard a small SATellite (UVSQ- SAT) is a small satellite at the CubeSat standard, whose development began as one of the missions in the International Satellite Program in Research and Education (INSPIRE) consortium in 2017. UVSQ- SAT is an educational, technological and scientific pathfinder CubeSat mission dedicated to the observation of the Earth and the Sun. It was imagined, designed, produced and tested by LATMOS in collaboration with its academic and industrial partners, and the French-speaking radioamateur community. About the size of a Rubik’s Cube and weighing about 2 kg, this satellite was put in orbit in January 2021 by the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle. After briefly introducing the UVSQ-SAT mission, this paper will present the importance of measuring the Earth’s radiation budget and its energy imbalance and the scientific objectives related to its various components. Finally, the first in-orbit observations will be shown (maps of the solar radiation reflected by the Earth and of the outgoing longwave radiation at the top of the atmosphere during February 2021). UVSQ-SAT is one of the few CubeSats worldwide with a scientific goal related to climate studies. It represents a research in remote sensing technologies for Climate observation and monitoring.

Mots clés: climate observation and monitoring; earth radiation budget; nanosatellite; IPCC

Domaines: Physique Atmosphérique et Océanique [physics.ao-ph]; Instrumentation et méthodes pour l'astrophysique [astro-ph.IM]; Climatologie

Mustapha Meftah, Thomas Boutéraon, Christophe Dufour, Alain Hauchecorne, Philippe Keckhut, et al.. The UVSQ-SAT/INSPIRESat-5 CubeSat Mission: First In-Orbit Measurements of the Earth’s Outgoing Radiation. Remote Sensing, 2021, 13, pp.1449. ⟨10.3390/rs13081449⟩. ⟨insu-03195031⟩