SCARBO next step - Space CARBon Observatory's solution to improve monitoring of GHG emissions and help establishing reliable data for emission trends forecasts

SCARBOn (Space CARbon Observatory Next step) is the continuation of the Horizon 2020 SCARBO project.

This multidisciplinary project is carried out by a gender-diverse team, through a consortium including the space industry, SMEs and scientific institutes. It is led from Toulouse, France by Airbus Defence and Space.

The SCARBOn system is based on a constellation of small greenhouse gases (GHG) monitoring satellites, flying an innovative miniaturised CO2/CH4 instrument (NanoCarb) together with a coregistered compact aerosol sensor (SPEXone).

Together, they will deliver twice-daily accurate global measurements to monitor the diurnal variations of fossil CO2 emission.The objective of the SCARBOn project is to mature the technical and industrial definition of the NanoCarb instrument and of the SCARBOn constellation, targeting an operational system availability before the end of the decade.

The design of the NanoCarb instrument will be upgraded and refined following the outcomes of the previous SCARBO study, and its performances will be carefully modelled.

An instrument breadboard will provide valuable data during an airborne campaign, which will be used together with modelled data to verify the instrument design. This will allow raising the instrument TRL to at least 5, targeting 6 by the end of the project. Data processing at levels L1 to L4 will validate the concept capability to monitor GHG plumes from space.

The constellation concept will also be refined in view of a possible short-term industrial implementation.SCARBOn’s daily CO2 and CH4 anthropogenic emissions monitoring data, based on novel European breakthrough technologies, will be a valuable contributor to the European Commission’s endeavour to fight climate change.

As an upside, the monitoring data will foster the development of added-value services and will represent a state-of-the-art European alternative to the burgeoning non-European commercial initiatives.