Support to spatial mission

Earth Observation (EO) satellites monitor the state and health of our planet. To ensure long-term availability of observations and to advance our knowledge of our living environment, continuous innovation is essential to harness novel ideas to shape pioneering satellite missions. During the multi-year conception phase of new EO missions, many researches are conducted to prepare the operational exploitation of data. HYGEOS team has in-depth knowledge of the radiative transfer into the Earth system (atmosphere, land surface, ocean). Radiative transfer being at the heart of remote senting, HYGEOS has a long-term experience in supporting future missions’ definitions as well as improving the data analysis of present and past missions.

HYGEOS participates in a Scientific Framework contract, together with the Laboratoire d’Optique Atmosphérique and ICARE data and services center, for the development of Cloud Products from current (EPS, MSG, Sentinel-3) and next generation (MTG, EPS-SG, CO₂M) satellites. In this context, HYGEOS gives support to EUMETSAT in improving or developing new algorithms related to cloud remote sensing products with any instrument being exploited by EUMETSAT. The activities include the exploitation of the synergistic capabilities of available instruments, as well as the validation and quality assessment of the products.

HYGEOS is also involved in the preparation of the Cluster for Cloud evolution, ClImatE and Lightning (C³IEL) mission, planned for launch in 2027. C³IEL aims to study the development of convective clouds at decametric resolution. The mission concept relies on two satellites, synchronized to observe the same cloudy scene during few hundreds of seconds under different observation angles. HYGEOS prototypes the algorithm to derive the water vapor content above the clouds.

In preparing future missions, HYGEOS has a growing activity in producing test data to anticipate the L1 data flow from future missions at both the agencies level and end-user’s level. The latest contribution is the production of simulated Top-Of-Atmosphere (TOA) radiance for the Multi-Angle Polarimeter (MAP) and Cloud Imager (CLIM) instruments for the evaluation of data processing of the forthcoming Copernicus CO₂ Monitoring Mission (CO₂M), one of the 6 Copernicus Sentinel Expansion missions. CO₂M will measure atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by human activity with the objective to assess the effectiveness of EU policy measures, and to track their impact towards decarboning Europe and meeting national emission reduction targets.

HYGEOS participates also in a Framework contract, together with other French companies, to perform studies and software development of Level 2 algorithms in support to the CNES activities related to the processing and quality of Earth Observation imagery. As part of this, HYGEOS helps anticipating the data analysis for the CNES future hyperspectral mission using, as proxy, the data of the Italian Space Agency PRISMA (PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa) mission.

HYGEOS has participated to the preparation of the METimage and 3MI missions that will fly on the Metop-SG spacecraft of the EUMETSAT Polar System-Second Generation (EPS-SG) mission from 2025. HYGEOS contributed to the production of Level 1B and Level 1C simulated data used to test the ground segment. HYGEOS has also developed the cloud product Level 2 algorithms for the METImage and 3MI sensors.

Similarly, HYGEOS has participated to the preparation of the Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) that flies on the MTG-I satellite (Meteosat third Generation – Imager) by simulating Level 1 test data and by contributing to the improvement of the Optimal Cloud Analysis (OCA) retrieval algorithm.

HYGEOS has developed a cloud retrieval algorithm focusing on ice clouds for the future FORUM (Far-infrared Outgoing Radiation Understanding and Monitoring) mission, the 9^th ESA Earth Explorer mission. By measuring radiation emitted by Earth into space, FORUM will provide new insight into the planet’s radiation budget and how it is controlled.

More details about recent HYGEOS projects supporting spatial missions:

• C³IEL – water vapor retrieval algorithm
• Support QTIS – Performance and Level 2 algorithms
• Scientific Framework for Cloud products development
• Radiometric calibration on Deep Convective Clouds
• CO₂M MAP and CLIM Top-Of-Atmosphere simulations
• FORUM Cloud
• High Spectral Resolution synthetic radiances for Geostationary imagers
• 3MI cloud algorithm development support
• O₂ A-band Cloud top Pressure retrieval with METimage
• Synthetic Datasets for EPS-SG MetImage and 3MI (4M-SDS)