Original subtitles

- [Narrator] The tenuous envelope of gas

surrounding our planet,

is an unbelievably complex machine

that protects us from the vacuum of space,

shelters us from harmful radiation,

and allows us and the biosphere to breathe.

It is our atmosphere

and we need to learn much more about it

so we can take better care of it.

(dramatic orchestral music)

(engine roaring)

(exploding)

Soon the European Space Agency, ESA,

will launch it's new Earth observation satellite,

called Aeolus.

Using cutting edge laser technology,

Aeolus will provide near real time observations

of wind profiles across the globe.

These will improve the accuracy

of numerical weather prediction and climate modeling,

and advance our understanding

of global atmospheric dynamics.

- Aeolus is one of the Earth explorers

that is gonna look at the Earth

trying to understand the wind profiles globally.

And that's a first.

It doesn't exist yet.

The whole idea was that we only have wind measurements

on very different, small spots on the Earth.

And we didn't have it globally.

So the mission scientists have been asking for this

because it's a gap in our measurement system.

- [Narrator] The mission aims to expand our knowledge

of our atmosphere and weather systems.

Aeolus will achieve this by providing global observations

of wind profiles from space,

providing data which has never been available before.

- It's unknown ground.

It's what we call unchartered territory.

So, we are the first agency trying to get a satellite

in orbit that looks at the Earth with a laser,

and trying to understand the wind profiles of the direction,

the height, and the wind speeds,

and therefore, improving the weather forecast

cause nowadays we only have, at single points,

balloons that measure the wind,

or airplanes that give us some data,

or at fixed points, at discreet points.

This will look down to the Earth in a fuller orbit.

Will dump every 90 minutes, the data,

to Svalbard, that will be distributed

to all the European meteorological institutes,

and then when you're sitting at home, on your couch,

you watch through the television,

and you see a weather forecast

that is much better than we have today.

- [Narrator] Aeolus will fly

in a sun-synchronized polar orbit,

320 kilometers above Earth's surface.

Its data will be sent to ESA's Svalbard ground station,

located in the Archipelago halfway between Norway

and the North Pole, every 90 minutes.

The satellite's main instrument is Aladdin.

- The way the Aladdin instrument works

is to eject an ultraviolet beam down through the atmosphere,

and then particles of moisture in the atmosphere,

at various levels, are in motion because of the wind and

the system measures the back scatter from those particles

using the doppler effect,

and can detect the wind speed at the various altitudes.

And then that's the way the system really operates.

(humming)

- [Narrator] The development of Aeolus

has been a long and difficult process,

with new and cutting edge technologies designed,

developed, and tested on the ground.

- It has been a very difficult challenge, let's say,

it's a long line because it exists already for 16 years,

the program, and when we first hit the part of

the instrument where you switch it on, it works,

then we put it in vacuum, and it stopped working.

And no one had realized that

we needed oxygen inside the satellite

to keep the laser active.

So it was quite a challenge.

So we had to develop a whole new set of techniques.

It's maybe a bit too detailed to go in all the details,

but as a lot of technology has been developed,

put in this nice little satellite, which is behind me.

- [Narrator] Aeolus is another ESA Earth explorer mission

aimed at pioneering new technology

while providing useful data about our ecosystem.

It showcases the technological expertise

of the European space industry,

and ESA's objective of monitoring

and understanding the planet we all live on.

- The main challenge for us

has been within the development of the Aladdin instrument.

There's a very high-powered ultraviolet laser system

in there that is an inherent part of the instrument.

And the technology behind that laser system,

the development of a stable laser, high-powered laser beam,

and the optics that then focus

and divert that beam in through the system is very critical

and has been a very key part of the development.

(upbeat electronic music)

After many years

and much hard work across the European industry,

we've overcome those problems.

We've got some new development in through

coating technology on the optical surfaces to protect them,

and we've now got a stable system

that's been fully tested on the ground

and we're ready to go.

- [Narrator] The tracking of air pollution is also part

of the European Union's Earth Observation program,

Copernicus.

One of the satellites that gave scientists

massive amounts of data on atmospheric function was Envisat.

This satellite used several spectrometers to detect ozone

and trace gases in our atmosphere.

The latest satellite, The Sentinel 5P cursor mission,

was recently launched and builds on the legacy of Envisat.

- So we started this precursor mission

because the scientists wanted continuity of data.

At the moment we only have one spacecraft

doing that job for us, which is Omi.

And Omi is coming towards the end of its lifetime.

The next missions that will do this job

is Sentinel 4, on meta operation,

which will only be launched in the early 20s.

In the meantime, to ensure the continuity of data,

we need Sentinel 5 precursor.

It would be the only such mission doing this job until then.

- Sentinel 5P is a precursor to the Sentinel 5 mission,

which will be launched around 2021.

But it's not only a precursor, it's also a gap filler,

because it's filling the gap,

based on the data that we have for

coming from Gomez (indecipherable) measurements

towards the future Sentinel 4 and Sentinel 5 missions.

- [Narrator] Sentinel 5P is the first

atmospheric chemistry mission within Copernicus.

Its main instrument is a state of the art spectrometer

called Tropeleme, which will be used to detect

trace gases in our atmosphere.

With Sentinel 5P and Tropeleme,

Copernicus will dramatically improve

operational atmospheric services.

The Sentinel 5P satellite is a timely replacement

for the ERS and Envisat after it stopped working.

There was an urgent need to fill the gap

in observing air quality and air pollution.

Furthermore, according to the World Health Organization,

air pollution is responsible for over 3.7 million

premature deaths worldwide, every year.

But the health costs are even greater

as many people suffer from nonlethal afflictions,

either caused or aggravated, by breathing polluted air.

Another major health concern,

on which Sentinel 5P is gathering data,

is the ozone in our atmosphere.

When that ozone is depleted,

ultraviolet light from the sun is no longer filtered.

Increased exposure to UV light can cause skin cancer,

immune system damage, and other ailments in humans.

- The Tropelme data will be used operationally.

It will be used to improve the air quality forecasts

and air quality forecasts, are of course,

are important for people who are vulnerable to pollution,

but also for general public in case of big smog events.

What we can do with the Tropelme data,

is we can look at the emissions of pollutants

and when you see them changing over time

that is very important because we can see

if certain policy measures have the right impact

or where we see still increases

we still have to do more to reduce the polluting emissions.

- [Narrator] A decline in air quality such as smog,

poses massive risks for people's health

and one of the main contributors to climate change

is the pollution of our atmosphere

by greenhouse gases such as CO2 and Methane.

This is why measurements on air pollution

need to be undertaken everywhere,

like here for instance, with a mobile measurement station.

It detects smog and industrial emissions.

These local measurements supplement and

validate the global observations from satellites,

which in turn are needed for scientists to study

the air we breath and the planet we live on.

- Well the satellites are a key information base and

knowledge base for the study of atmospheric physics,

chemistry, meteorology.

It's essential data because we need to know

not just what's coming out at a given place,

but we need to know where it's going,

where it's depositing at the surface,

how it's being transformed,

is it going to be taken up by clouds and rained out,

if so, where?

And this whole transport and transformation process

is a complex business.

In general, we have this problem of

unambiguously identifying anthropogenic impact

from natural phenomenon or natural behavior

in this complex system and how we're modifying it.

So this is a challenge for the science

which is a necessary prerequisite to enable good

legislation and ultimately sustainable development

and so in this context, measurements from space

are essential because they provide us with

the global picture, or from the local to the global scale.

- The Sentinel 5P mission will have quite some improvements

as compared to previous missions.

For example, if you look at the spatial resolution,

we will break a record, namely we will look at city scale

because the size will be as low as

3.5 kilometers times seven kilometers.

So we can then investigate small scale features

over big cities and city conglomerates, for example.

- [Narrator] The mission will monitor the atmosphere

by using the Tropeleme spectrometer to monitor

various trace gases in our atmosphere

and reduce data gaps between Envisat and Sentinel 5.

By combining satellite data with the local

measurements on the ground,

scientists can properly monitor air pollution

and how it impacts us and our planet.

- We have lots to understand to assess the impact.

Ultimately, more pollution is bad for health,

bad for people, and the estimates are somewhere between

three and seven million people a year die

prematurely from air pollution.

This is a large number of people.

- [Narrator] At the forefront of Earth observation,

the European space agency helps us to understand

climate change and pollution by giving

scientists and policy makers the data that

can drive legislation.

- These atmospheric measurements are

extremely important for mankind.

First of all to see how our planet changes

in terms of climate, but also to see how

air quality changes in different places and over time.

We have highly polluted areas which are of course,

transporting pollution from one place to the other.

So these fluxes of pollution or gases is

very important to monitor, but also

if you take Europe for example,

Europe has introduced very strong legislation

and regulations in order to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions.

And this has also to be verified and

these satellites are very good measure,

a very good way of making sure that these reductions

are taking place at a large scale.

- [Narrator] In the early 2020's,

the space component of the Copernicus

atmospheric services will be extended through

the addition of Sentinel 4 and 5 missions.

Sentinel 4 will be a geo-stationary mission

whereas Sentinel 5 will be a low polar orbiting mission

like Sentinel 5P.

Atmospheric services are part of the Copernicus portfolio

which comprises six main themes,

marine, land, emergency, security, climate and atmosphere,

giving a complete overview of our planet's health

and it's evolutions.

- It can have a lot of practical applications

using the data from the Sentinel 5P mission.

One idea would be, perhaps, if you look at the

harmful UV radiation, you could set up

UV radiation services so that people on the street,

so to speak, and the sun like today,

could inform themselves how harmful it is

to receive this short wave ultra-violet radiation.

- The Sentinel 5 precursor data will be

combined with models and other data to

develop targeted services and they will be

available as apps, social media information,

or rep services so that a lot of people can

choose their way they want to be informed

about the environment.

- Atmospheric measurements are important because

especially these measurements that are done by

Sentinel 5 precursor like tropospheric ozone,

information about nitrogen dioxide,

sulpher dioxide, also information about aerosols,

particular matter.

They have impact on the health of people.

They can impact people who have problems with

their hearts or with their lungs and

as it has been shown, there are more than 400,000

premature deaths in the European commissioning

based on exposure to air pollution.

- Air quality in Europe in particular,

but also in the U.S. and in Japan,

got much better over the last years.

That's a really big improvement and at the same time,

air quality in the developing countries,

in particular in Asia, has gotten worse because

they use much more energy now-a-days and

that's a big source of air pollution also.

They are using more cars that will pollute the air more,

so it's different.

It depends on where you live.

Some places air quality gets better

and other places air quality gets worse.

I should add that in the last three years,

air quality in China has improved

because they are very ambitious about that

and they have very strict rules,

so they are trying to follow the European or

United States path in improving air quality

with better technology.

- [Narrator] Observations from space is just one

of several methods of measuring atmospheric pollution.

Satellites provide the data although they need to be

calibrated with measurements on the ground.

- So we are offering comprehensive analysis,

integrating data different scale,

so we are using observations.

We are combined with modeling with satellite data

and all this information is complimenting each other.

This is the good thing of this kind of analysis.

Satellite have the advantage of the

providing a global picture of trends

to kind of study trends very well,

how the main flows are taking place.

But satellite data, they don't have the resolution

to get in detail in the individual processes.

So here, with our in C2 measurements,

we are getting in the one particular point

and we get deeply in the detail.

(whirring)

- The satellite gives these beautiful maps,

but you can only use them, really,

if you have a validation measurement to compare it to

and this needs to be a very good measurement

and this needs to be taken on the ground.

That's very important for us because we need

to be very confident of the satellite data

and once you have launched the satellite,

it's out of your hands, and you cannot bring it to the lab

and double check and test it.

It's there and you need to trust the data.

And the only way to get this confidence in the data

is by comparison to other measurements.

- [Narrator] Other forms of atmospheric pollution

such as the exhausting of carbon dioxide,

methane and ozone, contribute greatly to climate change.

- Well I think basically, it's often the case that our

models, which are extremely complex and good tools,

often don't necessarily have the right physics

or chemistry in them to be able to predict

what's going on in the future.

So a lot of the time, in atmospheric science,

we've been making discoveries.

Back in the late 19th century, early 20th century,

the discovery of the stratosphere

was a complete surprise at the time, or fairly surprising.

In fact, the temperature increases above the tropopause.

This was a surprising discovery and really

that's been typical.

We didn't expect summer smog.

We don't understand why in Paris there was a

really big smog a couple of years ago

in spite of improvements of legislation.

This winter we had in London a smog which is maybe

being attributed to excessive wood burning recently.

So there's a lot of things, although we have,

we're getting over the last 25 years,

much better information, but the satellites,

in particular, tell us ultimately,

or could tell us ultimately, what the source strengths are

and enable us to follow the information and

there-by, together with models,

give really good prediction for people about

the air quality they are receiving.

(ominous orchestral music)

- The Copernicus program is very important for

Europe and for the world.

First of all, the Copernicus program is providing

free data to everyone at anyplace in the world.

So many users, not only in Europe,

but also in America, in Asia, are using our data

in a very large scale and very significantly.

So, therefore, Copernicus is really monitoring

the health of our planet from all dimensions.

The Atmosphere, the oceans, the land surface,

the ice caps, and this whole system of the Earth

composed of these components is monitored constantly

with Copernicus and therefore,

it is really important to see

what is the state of our planet

and how it will evolve in the future.

- Well the data can be used for different applications.

So for example, for the air quality forecast.

It's also used, for example, for the UV forecast

and we also use it to warn the aviation for

volcanic ash plumes.

On top of that, the data will also be used

by scientists around the world,

to study the atmosphere and to study how

the man is changing the atmosphere over time.

Continuous monitoring is very important

especially when you're looking at slow changes

and an overlap between the data is then

really necessary to be able to glue these different

data sets together to one data records

and we have data records from these kind of instruments

starting in the 90's, for example, for pollution.

It's very important to maintain these valuable data records

and to extend them into the future.

- Well, the data is important for our climate research

and also for our environment because the air we breath,

it could be changed due to all sorts of pollution events

and then a second example is that we need to monitor

our ozone layer since ozone is destroyed

due to pure chlorophyll carbons.

75 people have also the role to monitor

the further evolution of the ozone layer.

- [Narrator] Mankind can hull the pollution

of our atmosphere with good legislation.

The European Space Agency, ESA,

works tirelessly to monitor our planet

and the air we breath.

- We need a future where we,

with so many people on the Earth,

are in a position to maintain a good quality of living

for human beings but also for the biosphere.

(energetic orchestral music)