Speaker
Description
The composition of the Upper Troposphere and Stratosphere (UTS) plays a significant role in controlling the Earth’s climate, but there are still poorly explored feedbacks within the Earth System. This region is coupled to the surface and the free troposphere both dynamically and radiatively. Its composition is strongly affected by anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and pollution precursors, and is subject to changes via radiative, dynamical, and chemical processes. As the Earth’s atmosphere is changing, so is the UTS. The rapid vertical and horizontal variations in the abundances of trace gases and aerosol around the tropopause, as well as strong and differing trends either side of the tropopause, have made trend detection challenging in this region with a knock-on effect on estimates of their climate impact.
The overall goal of CubeMAP (Cubesats for Monitoring of Atmospheric Processes) is to study, understand, and quantify processes in the UTS, study its variability, and contribute to analysis of trends in its composition and the resulting effects on climate and vice-versa. The mission focuses on tropical regions for at least two years, which are most critical for UTS processes, as the strong vertical transport in these latitudes means this is effectively the “gateway to the stratosphere”.
The space sector is also changing at a fast pace, which ought to benefit innovation for science missions, with faster, more agile development. CubeMAP embraces a high level of innovation to studies the UTS processes owing to a constellation-based sounding approach and miniaturized spectrometers that leverages small satellite benefits and obviate the limited coverage usually associated with solar occultation limb sounding.
An introduction to the mission and its status will be presented.
