Phase A Scientific Preparations for the Candidate Earth Explorer 7 Mission CoReH2O
Kern, Michael¹; Schuettemeyer, Dirk¹; Davidson, Malcolm¹; Floury, Nicolas²; Rommen, Bjorn^1
1ESTEC-ESA, NETHERLANDS; ²ESA-ESTEC, NETHERLANDS

In March 2005, ESA released a Call-for-Ideas for proposals for the seventh Earth Explorer (EE7). Scientific priorities focused on the global carbon cycle, the global water cycle, atmospheric chemistry and climate, and the human element as a cross-cutting issue. Out of 24 proposals, 6 candidates were shortlisted in May 2006 for dedicated assessment (Phase 0) studies. Subsequently, after a User Consultation Meeting in January 2009 in Lisbon, Portugal, three missions were down-selected to undergo feasibility study (Phase A). The three candidate missions are BIOMASS, CoReH2O and Premier.
This presentation describes the status of the three candidate missions at the culmination of Phase A activities prior to selection of EE7 and focuses in particular on the scientific preparations for the Cold Regions Hydrology high-resolution Observatory (CoReH2O) mission. A number of scientific studies, end-to-end simulation experiments and campaigns have been initiated and their objectives and status/results are elaborated in this presentation.