After a decade-long commitment to the Wind Velocity Radar Nephoscope (WIVERN) project, we are proud to announce that it has recently been chosen by the European Space Agency (ESA) Advisory Committee for Earth Observation (ACEO) for its Earth Explorer 11 mission.
The National Research Council of Canada's participation in this project was awarded thanks to Canada's distinct status as the only non-European cooperating state of the European Space Agency, made possible by funding from the Canadian Space Agency.
The story behind Earth Explorer 11
The ESA's Earth Explorer (EE) satellite missions are dedicated scientific missions aimed at improving our understanding of our Earth's system including the environment and climate system. To date, 10 EE satellites missions have been approved. Each mission featured 2 industry consortiums competing for the sensor and satellite components, along with 12 to 15 science advisors per team from across Europe and Canada.
WIVERN is one of 4 candidate missions considered for the latest mission for its role in pushing the boundaries of space technology while answering important scientific questions.
WIVERN: A new kind of satellite
WIVERN is the first satellite in the world capable of measuring wind in clouds and precipitation such as rain, snow and ice water, addressing a major gap in global observation capabilities of wind in cloudy regions.
It aims to improve hazard warnings for weather forecast models and offer new insights into severe storms, which is more critical than ever given the increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events due to climate change.
Aerospace researchers contribute to winds of change
Since 2014, the Environmental Sciences team at our Aerospace Research Centre was instrumental in the WIVERN project. Building on their expertise on the NRC's Convair research aircraft and our unique airborne W‑band polarimetric radar, the team—led initially by Mengistu Wolde, Principal Research Officer, and Cuong Nguyen, Senior Research Officer— implemented world-first radar airborne demonstration of in-cloud high wind measurements using a novel radar technique.
In 2016, NRC researchers achieved the first airborne demonstration of the polarization diversity pulse pair (PDPP) technique, which measures wind speeds over 100 metres per second from a moving platform. This tech breakthrough helped position the WIVERN radar concept as a candidate for this mission.
Since then, the NRC's Aerospace Research Centre has played a pivotal role in the concept and scientific development of WIVERN in collaboration with our European research and academic partners.
Wolde and Nguyen's leadership and expertise helped bring this technology into fruition. Wolde was part of ESA's mission advisory group and contributed significantly to strategic mission planning and provided technical oversight during the early stages of the project.
After WIVERN was selected as one of 2 final candidates in September 2023, Nguyen took over, serving as the principal investigator for the WIVERN's experimental campaigns in Canada. During the campaign phase, the NRC team used their expertise in instrumentation and atmospheric research to enhance the airborne W-band radar with a radiometric capability. This allowed the instrument to make both W-band radar and radiometer observations with a single instrument, a key part of the satellite's unique design.
These scientific achievements combined with industrial technology advancements, were key to ESA's recommendation of WIVERN for its Earth Explorer 11 mission.
The future is bright for the WIVERN team
Looking ahead, the NRC team is expected to continue supporting WIVERN through the 2034 launch and beyond by leveraging the satellite's unique capabilities to observe weather systems over Canada, with a special focus on the Arctic. The success of this project speaks volume to the importance of strengthening our partnerships with international partners, as well as within the NRC, which involved multi-disciplinary team of researchers. The selection of WIVERN as the final project is a great honour and a career highlight for many involved.