Alpbach Summer School 2010 - proposed missions to understand climate change

The theme of the Alpbach Summer School 2010 was "New Space Missions to Understand Climate Change". At present, climate change studies face many uncertainties that need to be solved and quantified. The unprecedented effects and consequences of climate change on our planet are causing serious concerns amongst the scientific community, that witnesses the transformations our environment is suffering. In order to reduce them, Earth Observation from space is a really interesting and affordable alternative. A group of sixty young science and engineering students both undergraduate and graduate, dealt with the task of designing space missions aiming to better understand climate change. The participants were split into four teams which were encouraged to design innovative new missions, that could potentially help to increase our understanding on climate change by introducing new observation parameters, methods and technology. They were also encouraged to focus on different approaches so no scientific case was duplicated. The resulting proposals comprised a wide range of climate change topics: AVALON (Atmospheric water Vapour from an Active Limb-sounding Observing Network) a mission using a novel active limb-sounding instrument to measure water vapour in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere; ERICC (Evolution and Radiative Impact of Contrail Cirrus) the first space mission dedicated to the study of contrails and their impact on climate change; VESTA a mission designed to derive data on CO2 emissions from biomass burning in the tropics and DROP (Dual Retrieval of Precipitation) a mission to improve the understanding of regional and global water cycles. This presentation will provide an introduction towards the four missions designed with the goal of contributing towards better understanding climate change and its causes. The scientific cases will be presented, as well as the engineering designs needed to meet these scientific requirements on a preliminary level. Special emphasis will be made on the innovative characteristics of each one of these missions, all spanning different topics. The Alpbach Summer School 2010 was organised by FFG and co-sponsored by ESA, ISSI and the national space authorities of ESA member and cooperating states.