Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) has signed a 30M pounds contract with Astrium GmbH, Germany for the supply of a Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) EarthCARE mission.

Mr. Bruno Le Stradic, Director of Earth Observation and Science, Astrium Satellites, and Dr. Matt Perkins, SSTL’s CEO signed the contract at SSTL’s Optical Payload Group facility in Sevenoaks, Kent, U.K. The EarthCARE mission aims to improve the understanding of the Earth's radiation balance and to minimize uncertainties in climate change prediction models by measuring simultaneously the vertical structure and horizontal distribution of cloud and aerosol fields together with outgoing radiation over all climate zones. The SSTL-built MSI will use new technologies developed in Europe to provide information on the horizontal structures of clouds, such as cloud type and cover, and cloud optical and microphysical properties.  Operating from an orbit of around 400km, the MSI will image the Earth at 500-metres ground sample distance (GSD) over a swath width of 150km.  The instrument will provide spatial context for the single-point measurements made by the radar and LIDAR systems, imaging the Earth in 7 spectral bands: one visible, one near-infrared (IR), two short-wave IR and three thermal IR. The EarthCARE Mission is part of the Earth Observation Envelope Programme (EOEP) led by ESA, to cover primary research objectives.  The EarthCARE Mission will be the third Earth Explorer Core Mission and will be implemented in collaboration with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) who will provide one of the core instruments. SSTL is supported in the MSI programme by TNO from The Netherlands, who are acting as subcontractors to SSTL.