What was the purpose of the EarthCARE Preparation Campaign

The main scientific objectives of EPATAN 2016 (Earthcare PrepAraTion cAmpaigN) were derived from the scientific objectives of EarthCARE. The EarthCARE mission will advance our understanding of the role that clouds and aerosols play in reflecting incident solar radiation back into space and trapping infrared radiation emitted from Earth's surface by providing vertical cloud and aerosol profile information in connection with collocated broadband solar and thermal radiance measurements.

EPATAN 2016 campaign addressed directly the programmatic needs of EarthCARE Mission Development, particularly relating to the development and refinement of Geophysical Product Algorithms.

What was the outcome of the EarthCARE Preparation Campaign

The team designed, planed and conducted a field campaign extension to the existing NAWDEX 2016 experiment. The French F20 carried out 15 flights (about 46 flight hours), radar-lidar data have been collected during these flights, including joint flights with HALO, German F20 and FAAM aircraft.

The measurements have been calibrated and processed in order to provide target classification, wind retrieval (RASTA radar only) and ice cloud properties.

Within these French F20 flights three CloudSat-CALIPSO underpasses (on 2, 5 and 14 October 2016) were carried out. The collected data were compared against CloudSat-CALIPSO measurements and synergistic products (DARDAR).

Download the EPATAN Final Report

Data Citation Users, who, in their research, use ESA Earth Observation data that have been assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), are asked to use it when citing the data source in their publications:
 

Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.5270/ESA-a346352 European Space Agency, EarthCARE Preparation Campaign

The campaign data is available online via FTPS upon submission of a data access request. An active EO Sign In account is required to submit the request.

The data can be downloaded via an FTP client (e.g., FileZilla or WinSCP) using the option "Implicit FTP over TLS".

For further information about the EO Sign In Service you can visit TellUs

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