TRUTHS shapes up
ESA’s new TRUTHS mission is taking shape. Highlighted today at COP26, this new mission is moving from its feasibility phase into its preliminary design phase. TRUTHS is set to provide measurements of incoming solar radiation and of radiation reflected from Earth back out into space as traceable International System of Units. These measurements will allow changes in Earth’s climate to be detected faster, and they will be used to calibrate data from other satellites. In effect, TRUTHS will be a ‘standards laboratory in space’, setting the ‘gold standard’ for climate measurements.
There is little doubt that human activity is having a disastrous effect on Earth’s natural processes – and it seems we are on the brink of catastrophe unless the climate crises is addressed. When it comes to underpinning decision-making, satellite data records are critical – but confidence in these data is of utmost importance.
Essentially, the amount of incoming solar energy compared to the amount that bounces back to space controls our climate. An accurate knowledge of these energy exchanges is fundamental to understanding and monitoring change.
TRUTHS will provide the benchmark reference for radiation measurements to improve our understanding of climate change and help increase the precision of climate models. This will help to monitor the effectiveness of international policy to fight the climate crisis.
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Conceived by the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, ESA is developing TRUTHS on behalf of the UK and other partner nations across Europe. It will be built by Airbus in the UK with an international industrial consortium, and supported by European researchers.
As part of the mission’s development, TRUTHS now moves from Phase A, which is the feasibility phase, into Phase B1, which is the early design phase. This will eventually lead to the ‘adoption’ of the mission and to the selection of an industrial contractor to be continue its build and through to being ready for launch around 2029.
Beth Greenaway, from the UK Space Agency said, “The UK-led TRUTHS mission is making significant progress. As it moves into the detailed design phase, we can now see what it will actually look like. The mission will play a vital role in improving how we monitor climate change using satellite data and support the decisive climate action that global nations are negotiating at COP26.”
Nigel Fox, from the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, added, “Working closely with the European Space Agency, the UK Space Agency and industry, it’s clear the skill, imagination and comradeship that is involved in building a space mission. As the satellite moves through these important phases, many of those who will eventually benefit from the data may only just be starting school and I hope missions like TRUTHS will inspire them to pursue careers in this exciting sector.”
The TRUTHS satellite carries two main instruments: the Cryogenic Solar Absolute Radiometer and the Hyperspectral Imaging Spectrometer as well as a novel onboard calibration system. Together, these instruments will make continuous measurements of both incoming solar radiation and reflected radiation. These two observations will be used to evaluate the energy-in to energy-out ratio.
Dominique Gillieron, Head of ESA’s Earth Observation Research Missions, noted, “Building on our experience of multiple previous Earth observation missions, ESA leads the preparation phase of TRUTHS mission towards its final endorsement by end of 2022 at the ESA ministerial conference.
