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ALTIUS - Atmospheric Limb Tracker for Investigation of the Upcoming Stratosphere

The ALTIUS instrument, on board a PROBA satellite, will observe the Earth’s atmosphere bright limb. The atmosphere observations will be performed in wide wavelength range within the UV-VIS-NIR spectral range (3 separate instrument channels). The narrow spectral band selection is done by an AOTF (Acousto-Optical Tunable Filter) or a Fabry-Pérot interferometer (FPI).

Name: Atmospheric Limb Tracker for Investigation of the Upcoming Stratosphere
Mission: PROBA
Application: Observing the Earth’s atmosphere
Life: Will be launched 2026

Instrument Description

The ALTIUS expedition will consist of a 2D spectral imager, aboard a PROBA-like satellite, flying at an altitude of approximately 700 km SSO. The mission will benefit from the high versatility of the PROBA-like platform to perform observations over different attitudes in a continuous way during an orbit. As such, a precise identification of the atmosphere species and tomography of the air masses can be performed.

OIP, as the industrial prime contractor for the payload, is responsible for the design, integration, alignment and testing of the instrument.
IASB-BIRA [B] is the principal investigator.

The ALTIUS mission aims at demonstrating the potential of small scientific missions to measure the vertical concentration profiles of ozone and other trace gases in the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

The ALTIUS Instrument is a limb sounder spectrometer, with 1 km vertical resolution over a wavelength range which ensures the detection of the different atmosphere constituents. Each channel contains a spectral filter, either a dedicated Acousto-Optic Tunable Filter (AOTF) or a stack of Fabry-Pérot interferometers, covering a separate section of the desired spectral range.
In addition to nominal limb observations, ALTIUS will also perform solar and stellar occultation observations in the dark limb.

ALTIUS is part of the European Earth Watch Programme (ESA), with QinetiQ Space (now Redwire Space) acting as mission prime and OIP acting as mission prime contractor for the payload.

The ALTIUS expedition is based on the scientific mission concept as initially proposed by IASB-BIRA.

Mission

ALTIUS is a satellite mission aiming at the remote sensing of key atmospheric constituents at high vertical resolution, flying on-board a PROBA satellite at an altitude of approximately 700 km Sun-Synchronous Orbit. The mission will benefit from the high versatility of the PROBA-like platform to perform observations over different attitudes in a continuous way during an orbit. As such, a precise identification of the atmosphere species and tomography of the air masses can be performed. Its primary objective is the retrieval of ozone concentration profiles with a global coverage by the combination of limb-scatter measurements with solar, stellar, and planetary occultations. Secondary objectives focus on aerosols, NO2, H2O, CH4 and other trace gases.

ALTIUS is a component of the ESA’s Earth Watch Programme with launch expected in 2026 and a design lifetime of minimum 3 years.

The ALTIUS expedition is based on the scientific mission concept as initially proposed by the Belgian Institute of Space Aeronomy (BIRA).

OIP’s Participation

OIP, as subcontractor to Belgian Institute of Space Aeronomy, participated in phases A, B0 and B1 of the ALTIUS project. These phases are completed.

When ALTIUS became element of ESA’s Earth Watch programme, the OIP work was continued into new contract, which made OIP, as the industrial prime contractor for the payload, responsible for the design, integration, alignment and testing of the ALTIUS instrument during the pre-development and CD phases of the project.

Status

The ALTIUS mission concept has been studied since 2006 by the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, together with OIP Sensor Systems and Qinetiq Space Belgium up to phase B. The payload successfully underwent the intermediate design review (IDR) in June 2015. In December 2015, ALTIUS successfully passed two reviews which concluded that ALTIUS could meet the requirements of an operational ozone mission, and the mission is capable of furthering atmospheric and climate research with its additional objectives. In December 2016, ALTIUS was submitted by Belgium to ESA’s ministerial council as an element of the Earth Watch program. With the appointment of ALTIUS being element of ESA’s Earth Watch programme, a predevelopment activity could be kicked-off in the course of 2017. End 2019, beginning 2020 the Phase CD was started.

Currently the payload is at CDR stage.

The payload should be ready for launch by 2026.

Partners

ALTIUS is part of the European Earth Watch Programme (ESA), with Redwire Space [B] acting as mission prime and OIP acting as mission prime contractor for the payload.

Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (IASB-BIRA) is the principal investigator.

A Belgian Space experiment for atmospheric sounding.

The ALTIUS instrument will be built by an industrial consortium on national and international partners (subcontractors) led by OIP, as industrial prime contractor.

The partners are AMOS [B*], Gooch&Housego [UK], VTT [FI*], ASRO [FI*], Teledyne-e2v [UK], Redwire Space [B*], HPS [RO*], Centre Spatial de Liège [B*], Antwerp Space [B*], Emtronix [LU*], Balzers [D], Glenair [D], Axon’/Capable [F/NL], Eire Composites [IR], …

*means subcontractor

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