Satellite observations reveal extreme methane leakage from a natural gas well blowout

Methane emissions due to accidents in the oil and natural gas sector are very challenging tomonitor, and hence are seldomconsidered in emission inventories and reporting. One of the main reasons is the lack of measurements during such events. Here we report the detection of large methane emissions from a gas well blowout in Ohio during February...

The Spectropolarimeter for Planetary Exploration - SPEX

SPEX (Spectropolarimeter for Planetary EXploration) is an innovative, compact remotesensing instrument for measuring and characterizing aerosols in the atmosphere. The shoebox size instrument is capable of accurate full linear spectropolarimetry without moving parts or liquid crystals. High precision polarimetry is performed through encoding the...

The Tropomi instrument: Last steps towards final integration and testing

The Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument TROPOMI is ready for system level verification. All sub-units have been integrated and tested and final integration at Dutch Space in Leiden has been completed. The instrument will be subjected to a testing and calibration program and is expected to be ready for delivery to the spacecraft early 2015. Using...

From ozone monitoring instrument (OMI) to tropospheric monitoring instrument (TROPOMI)

The TROPOMI instrument: first H/W results

The Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument, TROPOMI, is a passive UV-VIS-NIR-SWIR spectrograph, which uses sun backscattered radiation to study the Earth's atmosphere and to monitor air quality, on both global and local scale. It follows in the line of SCIAMACHY (2002) and OMI (2004), both of which have been very successful. OMI is still operational...

Technology evolution of the Tropomi instrument

TROPOMI is the sun backscatter trace gas instrument on ESA's Sentinel-5 precursor satellite. TROPOMI builds upon a rich heritage from similar instruments, the main ones being SCIAMACHY on ESA's ENVISAT and OMI on NASA's AURA satellite. This paper explains how the technology from the heritage instruments evolved, considering high level design...

TROPOMI on the ESA Sentinel-5 Precursor: A GMES mission for global observations of the atmospheric composition for climate, air quality and ozone layer applications

The ESA (European Space Agency) Sentinel-5 Precursor (S-5 P) is a low Earth orbit polar satellite to provide information and services on air quality, climate and the ozone layer in the timeframe 2015-2022. The S-5 P mission is part of the Global Monitoring of the Environment and Security (GMES) Space Component Programme. The payload of the...

PDR status for TROPOMI, the sentinel 5 Precursor instrument for air quality and climate observations

The Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) is being developed for launch in 2014 on GMES Sentinel 5 Precursor satellite. Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) is a joint initiative of the European Community (EC) and of the European Space Agency (ESA). TROPOMI is a passive sun backscatter spectrograph using the ultraviolet...

TROPOMI, the solar backscatter satellite instrument for air quality and climate, heads towards detailed design

The Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) is currently planned for launch on ESA's Sentinel 5 precursor satellite in the time frame of 2014. TROPOMI is an ultraviolet-to-SWIR wavelengths imaging spectrograph that uses two-dimensional detectors to register both the spectrum and the swath perpendicular to the flight direction. The swath is...

SPEX: An in-orbit spectropolarimeter for planetary exploration

SPEX (Spectropolarimeter for Planetary EXploration) is an innovative, compact remote-sensing instrument for detecting and characterizing aerosols. With its 1-liter volume it is capable of full linear spectropolarimetry, without moving parts. High precision polarimetry is performed through encoding the degree and angle of linear polarization of...