Delivering accurate earth observation data
Incorporating technology initially conceived at NPL almost 20 years ago, the TRUTHS mission was accepted into the ESA Earthwatch programme in November 2019. As a UK led, European Space Agency mission. TRUTHS will be delivered by a multi-national consortium which will include resources not only from the UK but include global partners from Greece, Spain, Romania and the Czech Republic.
The A/B1 testing phase which will be initiated in early 2020 will begin with the establishment of a delivery consortium who will then undertake a series of mission design studies including performance simulation alongside the design and build of the hyperspectral imager elegant breadboard which will be tested with the calibration system.
The Earth observation satellite data from TRUTHS will be directly downloaded to a single receiver station likely to be in Svalbard and from there transmitted to a data processing centre in the UK. As the TRUTHS data is considered a ‘public good’ it will be provided free and open to any user. In addition to improving our understanding of the planet and the effectiveness of strategies to mitigate against climate change, it is expected that TRUTHS will help facilitate further growth in commercial services for Earth observation and climate data benefiting the UK economy.
Professor Nigel Fox, NPL states:
The TRUTHS mission can be thought of as ‘putting NPL into space’ a ‘gold standard’ reference which will enable SI traceability to be established in space for Earth Observation data in the same way that we do for other terrestrial products and services such as time, mass and length, leading to increased trust in Earth observation, as well as climate data and services.”
Missions goals
Satellite calibration
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TRUTHS