Ultraviolet Visible Spectrometer (UVS)
AIM-North would use an ultraviolet-visible spectrometer (UVS) to measure reflected sunlight to retrieve NO2 and secondary species (e.g. O3, BrO, HCHO, SO2, aerosols) for air quality research and operational forecasting. The UVS would be a dispersive spectrometer spanning ~300-500 nm with a spectral sampling of ~1 nm. It would observe the above species with pushbroom scanning by acquiring ~4 km observations using one dimension of a large format space-qualified focal plane array (FPA) for the spatial domain and the other for the spectral domain, to spectroscopically image the cloud-free portion of the field of regard every ~2-3 hours of daylight.
Near Infrared and Shortwave Infrared (NIR & SWIR) Spectrometer
AIM-North would image CO2, CH4 and CO by observing spectra of reflected shortwave infrared (SWIR) and near infrared (NIR) solar radiation. Solar Induced Fluorescence (SIF) would also be observed in the NIR oxygen band using a few isolated solar Fraunhofer lines while also supporting retrievals for XCO2, XCH4 and XCO and yielding aerosol information. Dispersive and Fourier Transform Spectrometers (FTSs) were both studied for this instrument in Phase 0. The baseline design selected from these trade studies is an Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (IFTS) with 4 NIR-SWIR spectral bands using separate FPAs and the same fore-optics with a large input aperture. The interferometer would use two moving mirrors on a V-shaped pivot arm, rather than a traditional Michelson interferometer design (one fixed and one moving mirror). With the two mirrors moving in opposite directions, only half the displacement is needed to achieve a maximum optical path difference of 4 cm for a spectral sampling of 0.25 cm-1; however, the current baseline for standard operation is 0.30 cm-1. The baseline IFTS pointing and scanning plan is to observe with 128×128 ~2-4 km pixels with each FPA, then step to the next position and repeat. Using near real-time information on clouds for intelligent pointing would enable imaging the cloud-free fraction of the field of regard every ~60-90 minutes of daylight. The IFTS interferometer design has LEO spaceflight heritage in ACE, GOSAT, GOSAT-2 and other missions; however, imaging would be a new application facilitated by the possibility for longer stare times from a HEO or GEO vantage point. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) continues to invest in raising the technology readiness level of IFTS by supporting research by Canadian industry and academic partners in consultation with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).
Early Instrument Studies and Variations
AIM-North evolved from an earlier proposal called the Polar Highly Elliptical Orbit Science (PHEOS) Weather, Climate and Air quality (WCA) instrument suite. PHEOS-WCA was proposed as an enhancement to the Polar Communications and Weather (PCW) mission and completed Phases 0 and A in 2012, led by Professor Jack McConnell, York University. PHEOS-WCA also consisted of an IFTS and a UVS but these instruments were constrained to work with very tight mass (< 50 kg) and volume allocations. The main objective of PHEOS-WCA was to support PCW weather objectives, so the IFTS included wide longwave and mid-wave IR bands for water vapour, temperature, etc., but only one NIR and one SWIR band. An optimal IFTS configuration proposed by the science team included both XCO2 and XCH4 capability, but the fully compliant configuration would not have measured XCO2. It remains possible to enhance the current IFTS design above the baseline by adding mid- and longwave IR bands to enable measurements of temperature, water vapour and atmospheric motion vectors in northern regions (for weather forecasting) along with numerous AQ species and CO2 and CH4 with mid- to upper tropospheric sensitivity during days, nights and all seasons, but would require infrared FPAs and a cryo-cooler, thus significantly increasing IFTS mass, power and complexity.
Meteorological and Space Weather Enhancements – Arctic Observing Mission (AOM)
ECCC has a strong interest in obtaining geostationary-like meteorological observations over the North, by enhancing the mission with a meteorological imager, as proposed for PCW. An imager of similar capability to NOAA’s Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), or next generation follow-on being planned under NOAA’s GEO-XO program, would deliver tremendous benefits for numerical weather prediction (NWP), air quality (aerosol) forecasting and many areas of environmental monitoring across the North.
Space weather observations from HEO are also of interest to Canada and potential international partners. Enhancing the mission with a relatively small (~70 kg) space weather instrument suite for both imaging and in situ particle measurements is also considered.
Data Quality and Validation
AIM-North accuracy and precision targets are aligned with international GEO missions. Validation is a key component of ensuring high accuracy and precision. Canada currently operates two certified sites for satellite XCO2, XCH4 and XCO validation in the global Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) that use high spectral resolution solar-viewing ground-based Fourier Transform Spectrometers (FTSs). Canada has an Arctic site at Eureka, Nunavut (80°N, 86.4°W) and boreal site at East Trout Lake, Saskatchewan (54.4°N, 105°W). The FTSs at these sites also measure a number of other species, while Eureka hosts a wide range of other instruments for both science and validation. Northern high latitude TCCON sites in Europe will also contribute to validation. Additional XCO2, XCH4 and XCO validation can be carried out with lower resolution FTSs, for which there are a growing number in Canada and Europe as well as one in Alaska. Air quality validation is becoming more standardized with observations from the Pandonia network that carries out ground-based remote sensing using Pandora/Pandora-2S instrumentation, with a number of high northern latitude sites in Canada and Europe. Existing northern TCCON, Pandonia and other validation sites and some new sites will be required to assess data quality and ensure that accuracy targets are met.
Spatially and/or temporally averaging AIM-North data can improve precision beyond target values for some applications. Alternatively, sequentially combining multiple images can yield movie-like views of evolving atmospheric composition. No other satellite mission ever formally proposed could offer equivalent data for atmospheric composition or vegetation in northern regions.