The Canadian Space Agency's (CSA) SCISAT‐1 satellite carrying the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) was launched from an Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus launcher near Vandenberg Air Force Base on 12 August 2003. It was inserted into a 74‐degree inclination orbit at an altitude of 650 kilometres. From this orbit, the instruments on board make solar occultation measurements in the late winter and early spring over the Arctic. ACE comprises a Fourier Transform Spectrometer and the MAESTRO (Measurements of Aerosol Extinction in the Stratosphere and Troposphere Retrieved by Occultation) dual‐grating, diode‐array spectrophotometer. After engineering checks on the payload were complete, science operations commenced in February, 2004. The operation of the satellite and instruments remains nominal after 11 years on orbit.
The primary scientific goal for MAESTRO is the determination of the altitude dependence of wavelength‐dependent extinction from atmospheric aerosol. The extinction due to aerosol is measured by accounting for gas absorption using a spectral fitting algorithm and determining the residual extinction due to aerosol. The satellite data are downloaded by CSA and cooperating space agencies and provided to the science operations centre at Waterloo University. MAESTRO data are processed at University of Toronto and archived at Waterloo.
UV‐Visible‐NIR Spectrophotometer on Canadian Science Satellite SCISAT
Optical Payloads for Space Missions ; 613-637
2015-12-10
24 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English
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