UK-Built Forum Satellite To Measure Greenhouse Effect

A spacecraft measuring Earth’s warming ‘greenhouse’ effect in its greatest ever detail will be built in the UK.

The Forum satellite will be assembled by aerospace giant Airbus at its factory in Stevenage.

It will monitor far-infrared radiation coming up from our planet’s surface.

It’s this particular type of light that makes molecules of gases such as carbon dioxide and water vapour vibrate, leading to a heating of the atmosphere – a key aspect of climate change.

Forum is an Earth observation mission of the European Space Agency (Esa). Its procurement contract with Airbus is worth €160m (£140m).

The paperwork was signed at the House of Commons on Monday night in the presence of Minister for Science, Research and Innovation George Freeman.

He described Forum as another brilliant Esa project that played to UK strengths in climate change studies and satellite manufacturing.

“Capturing Earth observation data and developing a whole series of applications from it – we’re very good at all that stuff. So, I think we’re poised for a very exciting time,” he told his audience.

Forum is an acronym that stands for Far-infrared Outgoing Radiation Understanding and Monitoring.

The near-one-tonne satellite is expected to be launched on a Vega rocket in 2027.