Periodic Reporting for period 2 - LEMON (Lidar Emitter and Multispecies greenhouse gases Observation iNstrument)
Période du rapport: 2020-03-01 au 2021-06-30
The need for a European satellite-borne observation capacity to monitor CO2 emissions at global, European and country scale was identified at the climate conference in Paris 2015 and stated in the Copernicus report “Towards European operational observing system monitor fossil CO2 emissions”.
LEMON main objective is to provide a new versatile Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) sensor concept able to measure several gases (CO2, and water vapour stable isotopes (H2O and HDO)) with a single laser emitter, also capable to address CH4, thus paving the way to a new generation of instruments, easily adaptable for each species, for future space observation.
LEMON brings together 8 partners from 6 countries, including research centres, universities and SMEs, with full expertise at Earth Observation technologies, from receiver, data acquisition, instrument control and versatile emitter.
LEMON solution will contribute to:
• Demonstrate unprecedented versatility by the possibility to address multi-species and achieve simultaneous LIDAR detection for some of them.
• Perform the first range resolved water vapour and isotopes LIDAR measurements, leading to a better understanding in meteorology.
• Technical breakthroughs in terms of laser emitter output energy and wavelength tunability (1.98-2.3μm tunability) compared to a around 0.01μm for the state-of-the art LIDAR emitters at 2.05μm.
• Elaborate a roadmap to integrate LEMON GFCU in future space missions.
• Disseminate the LEMON concept to space agencies and end-users to sustain LEMON exploitation.
LEMON main objective is to provide a new versatile Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) sensor concept able to measure several gases (CO2, and water vapour stable isotopes (H2O and HDO)) with a single laser emitter, also capable to address CH4, thus paving the way to a new generation of instruments, easily adaptable for each species, for future space observation.
LEMON brings together 8 partners from 6 countries, including research centres, universities and SMEs, with full expertise at Earth Observation technologies, from receiver, data acquisition, instrument control and versatile emitter.
LEMON solution will contribute to:
• Demonstrate unprecedented versatility by the possibility to address multi-species and achieve simultaneous LIDAR detection for some of them.
• Perform the first range resolved water vapour and isotopes LIDAR measurements, leading to a better understanding in meteorology.
• Technical breakthroughs in terms of laser emitter output energy and wavelength tunability (1.98-2.3μm tunability) compared to a around 0.01μm for the state-of-the art LIDAR emitters at 2.05μm.
• Elaborate a roadmap to integrate LEMON GFCU in future space missions.
• Disseminate the LEMON concept to space agencies and end-users to sustain LEMON exploitation.
WP1 Management (ONERA): Coordinate, monitor and implement the necessary measures for the achievement of LEMON objectives on time, within the allocated budget and according to high quality standards. The management team has implemented different actions (meetings, amendments, reporting, deliverables, etc.) to ensure the smooth running of the project.
WP2 Requirements and Instrument Design (ONERA): Instrument and sub-system specifications defined, resulting in the submission of deliverable reports “System and sub-systems specifications” and “System and sub-systems specifications update”. Work on the instrument and its sub-systems design, resulting in the submission the "Critical design review document”. Work performed on the sub-systems designs (transmitter TREE, receiver ARM, frequency reference unit FRUit), including calculations and preliminary experiments. Optical critical design review (Optical CDR) held in September 2019. Initiation of the instrument mechanical design; overall instrument critical design review (CDR) performed along January-October 2020.
WP3 Manufacturing (Fraunhofer ILT): Strongly dependant on WP2 completion, the main work performed within WP3 includes following activities. Mechanical design refinement of the system and sub-systems. 1 mechanical readiness review initiated (ongoing). Several interfaces documents initiated, including 1 Opto-mechanical interface document for the emission and 1 electronical interface document between the emission sub-systems. Several subsystems set up, e.g. the pump laser, OPOs, receiver telescope and wavemeter; subsystems prepared for setup, e.g. OPAs and overall instrument frame. Further tests of the FRUit and the detector performed. New risks identified, concerning i) the interfaces between the sub-systems, which has been mitigated by the realisation of the two interfaces documents mentioned above; ii) the laser-induced damage threshold of the optics identified, preliminary testing of several optics from different suppliers carried out to mitigate this risk; and iii) the vibration environment effect in the aircraft on the optical bench operation, this risk is mitigated by the test of different damping systems and microvibrational tests with the most critical subsystems.
WP4 Instrument ground validation and airborne demonstration (CNRS): Analysis of the data from L-WAIVE campaign in the Lac d’Annecy region (funded by the sister project WaVIL), which led to 3 abstracts presented at EGU 2020 and to 2 articles submitted. A post-doc fellow hired at UiB for the preparation of specific calibration protocols and procedures for measuring water isotopes during aircraft campaigns. Two different lab experiments conducted at UiB to determine the temporal response of the reference CRDS instrument and its precision in the dynamic regime. Preparation of the LEMON ground-based validation campaign scheduled in September 2021 in the Rhone Valley (FR), led by CNRS, UiB and ONERA; the campaign strategy retained is similar to the one implemented during the L-WAIVE campaign.
WP5 Components space qualification and sub-systems TRL improvement (SPACETECH): Space compatible wavemeter design developed and assembled; final tests pending. Airborne vibration loads analysed and a test spectrum generated, which can be used for vibration testing under airborne conditions. Preliminary design for a photonic integrated circuit based on silicon nitride (SiN) designed and procured (for more robustness, compactness and radiation hardness required for the spaceborne instrument). Radiation testing of critical components within the LEMON instrument and post radiation tests conducted for most of the components. Several conference calls held on the topic of a future space DIAL Lidar. Vibration test protocol for space launch levels set for the space mitigation testing of the NescOPO cavity.
WP6 Communication, Dissemination, Exploitation (L-UP): Dissemination and communication plan defined and regular monitoring of all dissemination and exploitation activities performed: 20 dissemination events, 2 peer-reviewed articles and 1 technical article published, project corporate identity defined, communication set produced, project public website released online with regular updates and news, LinkedIn project page created and regularly updated with news, 3 project public newsletters released. Monitoring of technological, space and future mission roadmaps performed. Assessment of cross-fertilisation potential of results in several fields, such as space, optics and photonics.
WP2 Requirements and Instrument Design (ONERA): Instrument and sub-system specifications defined, resulting in the submission of deliverable reports “System and sub-systems specifications” and “System and sub-systems specifications update”. Work on the instrument and its sub-systems design, resulting in the submission the "Critical design review document”. Work performed on the sub-systems designs (transmitter TREE, receiver ARM, frequency reference unit FRUit), including calculations and preliminary experiments. Optical critical design review (Optical CDR) held in September 2019. Initiation of the instrument mechanical design; overall instrument critical design review (CDR) performed along January-October 2020.
WP3 Manufacturing (Fraunhofer ILT): Strongly dependant on WP2 completion, the main work performed within WP3 includes following activities. Mechanical design refinement of the system and sub-systems. 1 mechanical readiness review initiated (ongoing). Several interfaces documents initiated, including 1 Opto-mechanical interface document for the emission and 1 electronical interface document between the emission sub-systems. Several subsystems set up, e.g. the pump laser, OPOs, receiver telescope and wavemeter; subsystems prepared for setup, e.g. OPAs and overall instrument frame. Further tests of the FRUit and the detector performed. New risks identified, concerning i) the interfaces between the sub-systems, which has been mitigated by the realisation of the two interfaces documents mentioned above; ii) the laser-induced damage threshold of the optics identified, preliminary testing of several optics from different suppliers carried out to mitigate this risk; and iii) the vibration environment effect in the aircraft on the optical bench operation, this risk is mitigated by the test of different damping systems and microvibrational tests with the most critical subsystems.
WP4 Instrument ground validation and airborne demonstration (CNRS): Analysis of the data from L-WAIVE campaign in the Lac d’Annecy region (funded by the sister project WaVIL), which led to 3 abstracts presented at EGU 2020 and to 2 articles submitted. A post-doc fellow hired at UiB for the preparation of specific calibration protocols and procedures for measuring water isotopes during aircraft campaigns. Two different lab experiments conducted at UiB to determine the temporal response of the reference CRDS instrument and its precision in the dynamic regime. Preparation of the LEMON ground-based validation campaign scheduled in September 2021 in the Rhone Valley (FR), led by CNRS, UiB and ONERA; the campaign strategy retained is similar to the one implemented during the L-WAIVE campaign.
WP5 Components space qualification and sub-systems TRL improvement (SPACETECH): Space compatible wavemeter design developed and assembled; final tests pending. Airborne vibration loads analysed and a test spectrum generated, which can be used for vibration testing under airborne conditions. Preliminary design for a photonic integrated circuit based on silicon nitride (SiN) designed and procured (for more robustness, compactness and radiation hardness required for the spaceborne instrument). Radiation testing of critical components within the LEMON instrument and post radiation tests conducted for most of the components. Several conference calls held on the topic of a future space DIAL Lidar. Vibration test protocol for space launch levels set for the space mitigation testing of the NescOPO cavity.
WP6 Communication, Dissemination, Exploitation (L-UP): Dissemination and communication plan defined and regular monitoring of all dissemination and exploitation activities performed: 20 dissemination events, 2 peer-reviewed articles and 1 technical article published, project corporate identity defined, communication set produced, project public website released online with regular updates and news, LinkedIn project page created and regularly updated with news, 3 project public newsletters released. Monitoring of technological, space and future mission roadmaps performed. Assessment of cross-fertilisation potential of results in several fields, such as space, optics and photonics.
• WP2: New multispecies DIAL emitter design developed, including a wide spectral coverage optical source and a wideband frequency reference design.
• WP3: With the Lidar instrument that is built in this work package, the scientific community will be enabled to gain unravelled data about the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Furthermore, it will encourage other groups to recognize airborne measurements as a fruitful source that is made available to a broader community.
• WP4: Instrumental strategy for H2O/HDO profiling to validate DIAL measurements and develop an end-to-end Lidar simulator to conduct sensitivity analyses of the DIAL-retrieved mixing ratios to instrument-specific and environmental parameters.
• WP5: With the different developments and tests within this work package, the space viability of spectroscopic Lidar technologies will be pushed forward that allows for more complex, robust and potentially also cheaper space instruments in the area of active spectroscopic instruments. This mainly applies to the technologies of frequency combs, compact frequency conversion units and high-resolution spectrometer/wavemeter.
The LEMON project results will provide an added value to meteorological and climate prediction through better localisation and characterisation of carbon sources and sinks.
• WP3: With the Lidar instrument that is built in this work package, the scientific community will be enabled to gain unravelled data about the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Furthermore, it will encourage other groups to recognize airborne measurements as a fruitful source that is made available to a broader community.
• WP4: Instrumental strategy for H2O/HDO profiling to validate DIAL measurements and develop an end-to-end Lidar simulator to conduct sensitivity analyses of the DIAL-retrieved mixing ratios to instrument-specific and environmental parameters.
• WP5: With the different developments and tests within this work package, the space viability of spectroscopic Lidar technologies will be pushed forward that allows for more complex, robust and potentially also cheaper space instruments in the area of active spectroscopic instruments. This mainly applies to the technologies of frequency combs, compact frequency conversion units and high-resolution spectrometer/wavemeter.
The LEMON project results will provide an added value to meteorological and climate prediction through better localisation and characterisation of carbon sources and sinks.