Development agency	European Space Agency (ESA) / National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) / Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Launch	28 May 2024 (UTC)
Design lifetime	3 years
Mass	Satellite Approx. 1960 kg, Propellant approx. 310 kg
Average power consumption	Approx. 1645 W
Data rate	~2.5 Mbps
Attitude control	Three-axis stabilised, yaw-steering control
Satellite orbit	Orbit	Sun-synchronous sub-recurrent orbit
	Local crossing time (descending)	14:00
	Altitude	Approx. 393 km (at the equator)
	Inclination	97.05 degrees
	Cycle	Approx. 92.5 min.
	Revisit time	25 days

Name of equipment	Equipment Overview	Sensing method
CPR Cloud Profiling Radar	CPR is the world's first spaceborne Doppler radar jointly developed by JAXA/NICT which observes the vertical distribution of clouds and weak rainfall, as well as their upward and downward motions.	Active sensor Transmits millimeter-wavelength radio pulses (94 GHz, W-band) in and receives scattered signals from particles.
ATLID Atmospheric Lidar	ATLID is a High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) observes vertical distribution and shape information of clouds and aerosols.	Active sensor Transmit laser pulses in the ultraviolet wavelength (355 nm) and receives scattered signals from particles.
MSI Multi-Spectral Imager	MSI is an imager (pushbroom optical scanner) which has sensitivity in the visible to thermal infrared region and observes the horizontal distribution of clouds and aerosols with a scanning range of 150 km.	Passive sensor Receives reflections and emissions from the earth's surface in 7 channels in the visible to thermal infrared range.
BBR Broad-Band Radiometer	BBR is a radiometer sensitive in broad range of wavelength which observes radiation balance in the two separated bands (long and short wave bands).	Passive sensor Receives reflections and emissions from the earth's surface in both shortwave and longwave broadband bands.

The EarthCARE satellite will be equipped with four different types of instruments (radar, lidar, imager, and radiometer) to study the three-dimensional structure of clouds and aerosols in the Earth's atmosphere and their interactions. Synergistic (synchronized) observations by the four instruments will enable us to obtain observation data from each sensor at almost the same location and time.

The observation data obtained from each sensor is processed by higher-order processing algorithms into not only a single sensor product, but also a two-sensor composite product, a three-sensor composite product, a four-sensor composite product, and so on, and provided to the user.