Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE): Mission overview.

P. F. Bernath (1) , C.T. Mcelroy (2) , M. C. Abrams (3) , C.D. Boone (1) , M. Butler (1) , C. Camy-Peyret (4) , M. Carleer (5) , Cathy Clerbaux (6) , Pierre-François Coheur (5) , R. Colin (5) , P. Decola (7) , M. Demazière (8) , J. R. Drummond (9) , D. Dufour (9) , W. F. J. Evans (10) , H. Fast (2) , D. Fussen (8) , K. Gilbert (11) , D. E. Jennings (12) , E. J. Llewellyn (13) , R. P. Lowe (11) , E. Mahieu (14) , J. C. Mcconnell (15) , M. Mchugh (16) , S. D. Mcleod (1) , R. Michaud (17) , C. Midwinter (2, 9) , R. Nassar (1) , F. Nichitiu (9) , C. Nowlan (9) , C. P. Rinsland (18) , Y. J. Rochon (2) , N. Rowlands (19) , K. Semeniuk (15) , P. Simon (8) , R. Skelton (1) , J. J. Sloan (1) , M.-A. Soucy (20) , K. Strong (9) , P. Tremblay (21) , D. Turnbull (11) , K. A. Walker (1) , I. Walkty (22) , D. A. Wardle (2) , V. Wehrle (17, 22) , R. Zander (14) , J. Zou (9)

1 Department of Chemistry [Waterloo]
2 ECCC - Environment and Climate Change Canada
3 FastMetrix Inc.
4 LPMAA - Laboratoire de Physique Moleculaire pour l'Atmosphere et l'Astrophysique
5 Service de Chimie Quantique et Photophysique
6 SA - Service d'aéronomie
7 NASA Headquarters
8 BIRA-IASB - Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy / Institut d'Aéronomie Spatiale de Belgique
9 Department of Physics [Toronto]
10 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Peterborough]
11 Department of Physics and Astronomy [London, ON]
12 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
13 Department of Physics and Engineering Physics [Saskatoon]
14 Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique [Liège]
15 ESSE - Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering [York University - Toronto]
16 GATS Inc.
17 CSA - Canadian Space Agency
18 LaRC - NASA Langley Research Center [Hampton]
19 EMS Technologies Canada Ltd.
20 ABB Bomem Inc.
21 GEL-GIF - Département de génie électrique et de génie informatique
22 Bristol Aerospace Ltd.

SCISAT-1, also known as the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE), is a Canadian satellite mission for remote sensing of the Earth's atmosphere. It was launched into low Earth circular orbit (altitude 650 km, inclination 74°) on 12 Aug. 2003. The primary ACE instrument is a high spectral resolution (0.02 cm−1) Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) operating from 2.2 to 13.3 μm (750–4400 cm−1). The satellite also features a dual spectrophotometer known as MAESTRO with wavelength coverage of 285–1030 nm and spectral resolution of 1–2 nm. A pair of filtered CMOS detector arrays records images of the Sun at 0.525 and 1.02 μm. Working primarily in solar occultation, the satellite provides altitude profile information (typically 10–100 km) for temperature, pressure, and the volume mixing ratios for several dozen molecules of atmospheric interest, as well as atmospheric extinction profiles over the latitudes 85°N to 85°S. This paper presents a mission overview and some of the first scientific results.

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

P. F. Bernath, C.T. Mcelroy, M. C. Abrams, C.D. Boone, M. Butler, et al.. Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE): Mission overview.. Geophysical Research Letters, 2005, 32 (15), pp.L15S01. ⟨10.1029/2005GL022386⟩. ⟨hal-00112746⟩