The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced $1.6 million in the next round of funding for the High-altitude Aerosols, Water vapour and Clouds (HAWC) mission.
Canada is taking the lead in the HAWC mission as part of its contribution to the NASA led Atmosphere Observing System (AOS) Earth observation (EO) constellation.
The funds from this investment announcement will go to SFL Missions Inc. to develop concept designs for the Canadian satellite for the HAWC mission, also known as HAWCSat, and “the Aerosol Limb Imager (ALI), an instrument flying on the Canadian satellite to measure mid- to high-altitude aerosol particles.”
Canada is also providing the Spatial Heterodyne Observations of Water (SHOW) instrument for the HAWCSat satellite. There was no update of the status of this instrument by the CSA.
Canada is also contributing another instrument on a NASA AOS satellite, TICFIRE. The Thin Ice Clouds and Far InfraRed Emissions (TICFIRE) instrument “will observe water vapour and ice cloud properties. It will also measure the energy that the atmosphere radiates to space, providing better information on how the atmosphere cools. TICFIRE will provide the ability to monitor this ‘far infrared’ radiation from space, which up until now has not been possible.”
According to NASA’s timeline as it stands now, HAWCsat would launch in 2031.