SCIAMACHY - SCANNING IMAGING ABSORPTION SPECTROMETER FOR ATMOSPHERIC CHARTOGRAPHY

SCIAMACHY will perform global measurements of atmospheric trace gases in order to retrieve their global total column amounts as well as their stratospheric and tropospheric profiles. Aerosol abundances will be derived from observations of wavelength-dependent light scattering characteristics. Furthermore, the instrument will yield physical parameters of clouds, stratospheric temperature and pressure profiles; the latter being derived from Sun occultation measurements. SCIAMACHY observes the backscattered radiance over the wavelength range 240-2380 nm. Differential optical absorption spectrometry (DOAS) and back scattered u.v. (BUV) retrieval techniques are selected for the inversion of radiance. Ground scenes are scanned by a two-mirror scanning mechanism of high positioning accuracy. The instrument electronics, including subsystem controller and data electronics, mechanisms and thermal control electronics, allow SCIAMACHY to be operated autonomously. The instrument will be flown on the polar platform of the first European Polar Orbit Earth Observation Mission (POEM-1), now known as ENVISAT. It has been developed by the following industrial team: Dornier (prime-contractor, thermal control, instrument control); OHB (data electronics); SRON (detector modules and analogue electronics); TPD (optical unit).