The Sentinel-5P satellite carries a single payload instrument: TROPOMI (TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument).
The TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) instrument was co-funded by ESA and the Netherlands. Key organisations from the Netherlands include KNMI (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute), SRON (Space Research Organization Netherlands), TNO (Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research), and Airbus DS-NL, on behalf of NSO (Netherlands Space Office).
KNMI and SRON are responsible for the development of the Level 1B and some Level 2 products (e.g. Methane, Nitrogen Dioxide). Airbus DS-NL was the principal contractor for instrument construction and many European industries have contributed to the subsystems. The Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA), the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) are contributing as well to the TROPOMI Level-2 product development. The operational data processing is performed at DLR (on behalf of ESA and the European Commission).
The main characteristics of TROPOMI are:
- Type: passive grating imaging spectrometer
- Configuration: Push broom staring (non-scanning) in nadir viewing
- Swath width: 2,600 km
- Spatial sampling: 7x7 km2
- Spectral: 4 spectrometers, each electronically split in two bands (2 in UV, 2 in VIS, 2 in NIR, 2 in SWIR)
- Radiometric accuracy (absolute): 1.6% (SWIR) to 1.9% (UV) of the measured earth spectral reflectance.
- Overall mass: 204.3 kg not including ICU (16.7 kg) that is integrated on the platform, separated from the instrument.
- Dimensions: 1.40 x 0.65 x 0.75 m
- Design lifetime: 7 years
- Average power consumption: 155 W
- Generated data volume: 139 Gbits per full orbit.
The Level 1B Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD), provides detailed information on the instrument and the algorithms needed to process TROPOMI Level 0 data to Level 1B.
TROPOMI instrument (credit: TNO, Airbus DS-NL). Click on the image to enlarge.