SFL Missions Inc. has been awarded a competitive bid contract by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to conduct a conceptual design study of the planned High-Altitude Aerosols, Water vapour, and Clouds (HAWC) satellite mission. HAWC is Canada’s contribution to NASA’s Atmosphere Observing System (AOS) mission slated for launch in 2031.

“The HAWC mission will collect atmospheric data that will support extreme weather prediction, climate modeling, and air quality forecasting,” said Michael Henderson, SFL Missions Inc.’s Guidance, Navigation and Control Specialist.

Under the Phase 0 contract, SFL Missions will study the design requirements of the planned HAWC satellite (HAWCsat) and the Aerosol Limb Imager (ALI) instrument that will fly onboard. ALI will measure aerosols, which are tiny solid and liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere. Emanating from forest fires and volcanoes, as well as power plants and industrial processes, aerosols impact weather, climate, and air quality.

ALI will be complemented by the Spatial Heterodyne Observations of Water (SHOW) instrument also carried aboard HAWCsat. SHOW will measure water vapour in the upper atmosphere, a key component of cloud formation which drives heating and cooling of Earth. ALI and SHOW will make measurements in coordination with a third Canadian instrument, called Thin Ice Clouds and Far InfraRed Emissions (TICFIRE), which is flying on the NASA AOS satellite. HAWCsat will fly in formation leading the AOS spacecraft by 310 seconds.

SFL Missions is uniquely qualified to study the design of this mission due to the importance of formation flying of HAWCsat with the AOS spacecraft. SFL Missions has expertise in precise attitude control, accurate sensor pointing, and autonomous formation flying technologies that have been developed and refined for low-mass smaller satellites.

“Success of the mission depends on the HAWC spacecraft flying in a precise orbit relative to the AOS satellite, so that both capture measurements from the same portion of the atmosphere at the same time, but from different angles,” said Henderson.

The study phase, or Phase 0, of the CSA HAWC mission design will be completed by November of this year.

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