DEMETER: DEMonstrating the Emerging Technology for measuring the Earth's Radiation (DEMETER)

DEMETER, which stands for DEMonstrating the Emerging Technology for measuring the Earth's Radiation, is a small sensorcraft that will demonstrate a revolutionary approach for measuring Earth's Radiation Budget Fundamental Climate Data Record (ERB-FCDR) from Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This measurement is comprised of global Top-Of-Atmosphere (TOA) broadband radiance fields which include total reflected solar and outgoing longwave radiation. DEMETER is a sensorcraft mission solution that goes beyond preserving observational and radiometric continuity of the existing multi-decadal FCDR; it exploits new technology, integrating it with existing high TRL capability assets, and capitalizes on concurrent investments in technology demonstration flight programs from multiple agencies. This greatly expands the scientific utility of the Earth Radiation Budget Thematic Climate Data Record (ERB-TCDR). Our solution increases the spatial resolution of the measurement by a factor of 10, which enables more accurate clear-versus-cloudy sky investigations, provides in-situ data processing capability on the sensorcraft, while also reducing mass, power and cost by an order of magnitude over current approaches and brings a potentially new data set of reflected solar polarimetric observations. Reduced accommodations enable insertion of the sensorcraft into multiple orbits for more complete global diurnal sampling of the radiation fields, while providing robustness against a possible gap in the observational record. This proposal covers a three-year period of performance (nominally January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2022) and advances the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the proposed sensorcraft system from 2 to 4. The result of this effort is a technology demonstration brassboard which will be tested over complete thermal regimes in the laboratory with a goal of additional testing under vacuum environments. The long-term goal is maturation the sensorcraft's TRL to an operational system for future flight opportunities by 2025. Current LEO ERB instruments (ERBE, CERES) that obtain global broadband coverage typically have a mass of 50-kg, require 50-W power, contain complex scanning mechanisms, and require a budget of $150M+, and integrate on large observatories (~3,000 kg) such as those in the JPSS program. This approach is expensive and introduces significant risk in the continuation of the ERB climate data record at the current level of accuracy, particularly if temporal gaps in observations were to occur. The proposed concept breaks the existing paradigm by implementing a non-scanning wide-field-angle telescope on a small free-flying sensorcraft platform. The DEMETER team partners, NASA LaRC, Quartus Engineering Incorporated, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, NovaWurks Inc. and Science Systems and Applications, Inc., provide rich heritage and experience in the areas of space-based ERB sensor design, fabrication, calibration, end-to-end numerical modeling, operations, as well as science data product generation and investigation. The team's key members have a combined 100+ years of direct experience providing the needed expertise to pro-actively influence the design and address trades involved in this proposed effort in an integrated and intelligent manner. ERB-TCDR is a highly assimilated Level-3B data product, therefore, a Science Advisory Group (SAG), has been established as an integral element of this proposed effort. SAG membership includes the Radiation Budget Measurement Project (RBMP) Principal Investigator and six of the project's Working Group leads, each of whom brings unique expertise, knowledge, and perspective of the ERB-TCDR. The SAG's charter is to advise the PI of this proposed effort, as necessary, during IIP execution regarding impacts trades/designs/tests will have on the higher level ERB-TCDR the RBMP team is responsible for producing.

Increase scientific understanding of natural phenomena using remote sensing

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