Tropomi: observing our future
the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument TROPOMI will look at Earth from an altitude of 800 km for a period of about seven years. The daily global measurements with high resolution and sensitivity will provide insight into air pollution, greenhouse gases, methane and the ozone hole. Thanks to a ten by ten km resolution pollution can be traced directly to the source. TROPOMI data will be used in many climate models, for example in monitoring compliance to climate treaties like the Kyoto Protocol, or for warnings to air traffic in case of volcano eruptions. The Sentinel-5p satellite is part of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme of the European Commission and ESA.
TROPOMI builds on the success of two Earth observation instruments of Dutch origin. SCIAMACHY, launched in 2002 on ESA satellite Envisat, and OMI, launched in 2004 on NASA satellite Aura, still map the air pollution on a daily basis. With the combination of OMI’s high resolution and wide viewing, together
with SCIAMACHY’s large wavelength range, TROPOMI is able to gather an unprecedented amount of crucial information about the earth’s atmosphere. This is estimated at six times more atmospheric data than currently available.
TROPOMI is a collaboration between KNMI, SRON, TNO and Dutch Space, commissioned by the NSO.
The scientific management is in the hands of the KNMI and SRON. Dutch Space is prime contractor for the development of the instrument. TROPOMI is funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment. The budget for construction was awarded in 2009 to the participating parties.
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