SciSat-1 mission overview and status

• Main Authors: Chris Boone, Peter Bernath
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: remote sensing; occultation spectroscopy; ozone; Arctic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.663.6427; http://www.ace.uwaterloo.ca/publications/2003/BooneSPIEinvitedPaper.pdf

SciSat-1, otherwise known as the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE), is a satellite mission designed for remote sensing of the Earth’s atmosphere using occultation spectroscopy. It has been developed under the auspices of the Canadian Space Agency and is scheduled for launch in August 2003. The suite of instruments on the satellite consists of a high-resolution (25 cm maximum path difference) Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) operating in the infrared (2.4 to 13.3 microns), a UV/Visible Spectrometer operating between 0.285 and 1.03 microns with a resolution of 1 to 2 nm, and a pair of filtered imagers operating at 1.02 and 0.525 microns. The primary science goal of the ACE mission is to investigate the chemical and dynamical processes that govern ozone distribution in the stratosphere and upper troposphere. To this end, vertical profiles for trace gases, aerosols, temperature and pressure will be deduced from analysis of the solar occultation spectra. In particular, the role of heterogeneous reactions on ozone loss will be investigated, with a focus on the Arctic winter stratosphere.