Harmony [DLR]
ESA’s Earth Observation Programme Board has selected Harmony (formerly known as Stereoid, Stereo Thermo-optically Enhanced Radar for Earth, Ocean, Ice, and land Dynamics) to become the tenth Earth Explorer mission. Harmony will comprise two identical satellites orbiting Earth in convoy with a Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite. Each Harmony satellite will carry a receive-only C-band synthetic aperture radar and a multiview thermal-infrared instrument.
Harmony’s mission concept is to fly two C-band receive-only radar satellites in a configurable formation with Sentinel-1 C or D, which will be used as illuminator. Formation flying allows an in-orbit reconfiguration of the observation geometry. This in-orbit configurability is the key enabling the multi-purpose nature of the mission. In addition the payload will include a compact TIR camera.
Working with Sentinel-1, the two Harmony’s would provide data to measure small shifts in the shape of the land surface and of glaciers. They would also carry a multibeam thermal-infrared instrument to measure cloud movements and the sea-surface and would provide simultaneous measurements of wind, waves, and currents. Technically, Harmony enables unique measurements over timescales ranging from tens of milliseconds (to measure ocean currents) to years (to measure solid Earth surface motion).
Harmony will alternate between two flying configurations:
Launch is planned for 2029 on a Vega-C.
Nation: | Europe |
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Type / Application: | Earth Science |
Operator: | ESA |
Contractors: | |
Equipment: | |
Configuration: | |
Propulsion: | ? |
Power: | 2 deployable solar arrays, batteries |
Lifetime: | 5 years |
Mass: | < 500 kg |
Orbit: | 700 km × 700 km, 98.2° |
Satellite | COSPAR | Date | LS | Launch Vehicle | Remarks | |
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Harmony A (Earth Explorer 10A, Concordia) | - | 2029 | Ko ELV | Vega-C (baselined) | with Harmony B | |
Harmony B (Earth Explorer 10B, Discordia) | - | 2029 | Ko ELV | Vega-C (baselined) | with Harmony A |