Thales Alenia Space will provide the IRIS altimeter for the Copernicus CRISTAL mission

September 21

Thales Alenia Space has signed a close to €88 million contract with Airbus Defence and Space, prime contractor of the satellite, to develop the two IRIS flight models (Interferometric Radar Altimeter for Ice and Snow) of the Copernicus polaR Ice and Snow Topography ALtimeter (CRISTAL) mission. The CRISTAL mission is part of the expansion of the Copernicus Space Component programme of the European Space Agency, ESA, in partnership with the European Commission. The European Copernicus flagship programme provides Earth observation and in situ data and a broad range of services for environmental monitoring and protection, climate monitoring, natural disaster assessment to improve the quality of life of European citizens.

The CRISTAL satellite will carry, for the first-time, a dual-frequency Ku/Ka bands radar altimeter to measure and monitor sea-ice thickness and overlying snow depth. Measurements of sea-ice thickness will support maritime operations and they will help in the planning of activities in the polar regions. IRIS will also measure and monitor changes in the height of ice sheets and glaciers around the world, thanks to its interferometric radar mode. IRIS will significantly improve the measurement accuracy of its predecessor SIRAL-2 (a Ku band only altimeter on board ESA’s CryoSat-2 Earth Explorer mission) thanks to the dual frequency operation and by adding the measurement of sea surface height as part of the mission objectives. The CRISTAL global mission is essential to better understand and monitor Earth climate in a context of the rapid climate change.

Hervé Derrey, CEO of Thales Alenia Space declared: “By providing the IRIS altimeter onboard CRISTAL, Thales Alenia Space is pleased to contribute to improve the data already provided by SIRAL-2 on board Cryosat and ensure the continuity of ice monitoring. Polar regions have a real influence on patterns of global climate, thermohaline circulation, and the planetary energy balance. A long-term program to monitor Earth polar ice, ocean and snow topography is therefore of the utmost interest to both operational and scientific users of Arctic and Antarctic measurements.”

Marc-Henri Serre, VP Observation and Science domain, at Thales Alenia Space in France added: “Thales Alenia Space will bring all its expertise and long-standing heritage on space altimetry, and its flight proven heritage acquired with SIRAL-2 to serve this crucial mission to understand and monitor the climate”.

The IRIS altimeter is designed and it will be built from the legacy of several altimeter programs of the Thales Alenia Space product line, including SIRAL-2, Poseidon 4 on board Sentinel-6/Jason-CS, Alti-Ka on the CNES/ISRO satellite, and KaRIn on board the CNES/JPL SWOT satellite. Thales Alenia Space is also the first to have flown an interferometric SAR altimeter (SIRAL) offering a unique expertise in interferometric radar electronics and interferometric antennas.