ESA’s EarthCARE mission has launched, and its four instruments have been successfully fired up, working in synergy to monitor clouds and aerosols and their role in regulating the climate.

After several months of calibration and validation efforts, EarthCARE will soon be fully commissioned and ready for scientific use.

That means it is time for the EarthCARE Data, Innovation and Science Cluster (DISC) to start its essential role.

What is the DISC?

Putting an Earth Explorer satellite into space is the result of decades of hard work, pioneering ingenuity and perseverance, but in some ways that is just the beginning.

The data, and the data products with which users can access and analyse those data, are critical.

Considering EarthCARE is flying a Doppler cloud profiling radar (CPR), atmospheric lidar (ATLID), multispectral imager (MSI) and broadband radiometer (BBR) -all working in unison- that is no mean feat.

The EarthCARE DISC is a cluster of product, sensor and processor experts from 16 organisations, which will ensure that users get the best quality data and science products.

The DISC is led by Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff and Antje Ludewig of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), with service management provided by Telespazio UK, led by Kajal Haria.

What will the DISC do?

The DISC’s main role will be to develop, maintain and improve data processing algorithms to best meet the evolving needs of users and to fulfil the EarthCARE mission requirements.

The DISC will oversee the Level 1 ATLID, MSI and BBR processors, the ESA Level 2 processors, and the ESA auxiliary processors. In tandem, JAXA, which developed the CPR, will oversee the CPR Level 1 and JAXA Level 2 processors.

The DISC is responsible for data quality control, calibration and validation (Cal/Val) activities for EarthCARE instruments and products, and routine monitoring efforts, leading to algorithm updates and data reprocessing activities.

For further optimisation of user experience, the DISC will generate tools for ease of data visualisation, analysis, and monitoring and processing, whilst providing user support and outreach.

The DISC will also assimilate EarthCARE data into global weather models, such as those of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), and the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS).

Why is the DISC important?

The EarthCARE DISC follows in the footsteps of those of its Earth Explorer siblings, Swarm and Aeolus, which have been key to the success of both missions.

The Swarm satellites are still in orbit over ten years on since launch, providing the best-ever survey of Earth’s geomagnetic field. The mission is adding ever-more data products to its portfolio, allowing research on all aspects of Earth’s system from core dynamics to space weather, thanks to the dedicated work of the Swarm DISC.

The Aeolus DISC, meanwhile, supported one of the most complex instruments ever put into orbit -the ALADIN Doppler wind lidar- which went above and beyond expectations to provide highly impactful improvements to weather prediction models, particularly in the tropics.

The EarthCARE DISC follows from the heritage and lessons learned from those missions, with the added twist of dealing with four instruments working simultaneously in probably the most complex Earth Explorer yet put into space by ESA.

Being in such a low Earth orbit, at an altitude of just 393 km, the EarthCARE satellite has a limited lifetime in space.

The DISC therefore will be critical to ensuring, in that short time (the mission is expected to deliver data for around three years), we get the best possible insight into the role of clouds and aerosols in Earth’s climate system.

What’s next for the EarthCARE DISC?

The EarthCARE DISC had their kick-off meeting in September 2024, and it is full steam ahead.

The Level 1 data will be made available to the scientific community in January 2025, when the DISC will take over EarthCARE data responsibilities from the commissioning teams currently led by ESA.

A few months later in March 2025, all single instrument (Level 2a) and dual instrument (Level 2b) processor retrievals will be made available to the science community.

The first science results will be presented at the ESA Living Planet Symposium in June 2025. Finally, all three and four instrument synergy products will be available for scientific usage by the end of 2025 at the latest. Each of these releases will be marked by an EarthCARE Cal/Val and science workshop.

Each of these data releases wouldn’t be possible without the work of the EarthCARE DISC team.