Satellite to understand Earth’s radiation balance takes to the skies

ESA’s EarthCARE satellite lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US, on 29 May at 00:20 CEST (28 May, 15:20 local time). The Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer satellite, or EarthCARE for short, carries a set of four instruments to make a range of different measurements that together will shed new light on the interplay between clouds, aerosols, incoming solar energy and outgoing radiation, which together regulate Earth’s climate. With the climate crisis increasingly affecting our planet, EarthCARE is poised to provide key data for climate research, to improve the accuracy of climate models and to support numerical weather prediction. EarthCARE has been developed as a cooperation between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).