WaveL - banner

GHGSat joins ESA’s Third Party Mission Programme

From left to right: Eric Laliberté, Director General Space Utilization at the Canadian Space Agency, Adina Gillespie, Director of Business Development, Europe at GHGSat Inc and Simonetta Cheli, Director of Earth Observation Programmes. Credit: ESA / JürgenMai

Edinburgh, 25 May 2022. – High-resolution greenhouse gas monitoring company GHGSat, has joined ESA’s prestigious Third Party Mission Programme, ESA said. The company will share data from its fleet of commercial satellites with Earth science and climate change researchers free of charge.

The 45-year-old programme enables the global scientific community to access high-quality data from Earth observation satellite missions. ESA’s Third Party Missions Programme comprises over 60 instruments on more than 50 space missions.

All five of GHGSat’s commercial satellites will participate in the project. These include Iris and Hugo already in orbit, as well as Luca, Penny and Diako expected to be launched later this week. The company aims to expand the constellation to 10 satellites by 2023.

The cooperation builds on the successful long-term data-sharing where ESA and the Canadian Space Agency partnered with GHGSat. According to the partnership, the agencies can access 5% of Iris’ data for research purposes for free.

Both ESA and GHGSat support the United Nations Environment Programme’s new International Methane Emissions Observatory as well. The observatory identifies sources of human-made methane leaks, which are a major factor in global warming.

Check Also

EU SST

EU SST Wins T.S. Kelso Award for Flight Safety Contributions

Space Data Association has announced The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking Partnership (EU SST) as the recipient of the T.S. Kelso Award in recognition of outstanding contributions to space flight safety. The EU SST Partnership relies on the SSA capabilities of 15 Member states of the European Union to provide space safety services, with the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) acting as the Front Desk.