Argus

Greenhouse-Gas Monitoring Technology

Climate change is a global issue requiring immediate and sustained action by the international community. Thoth Technology has developed microsatellite instrumentation to measure greenhouse gases in the surface-troposphere region. Argus identifies sources and sinks and mitigate atmospheric pollution, improving our understanding of global climate science and meeting obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and other treaties.

Argus is delivering near-real time, high quality, information products for use by national and global customers, including governments, industrial emitters, the scientific community, and the forecast community.

The first flight demonstration of Argus technology was in April 2008 aboard the CanX-2 microsatellite. Argus spectrometers are available in a range of qualification levels from laboratory to space grade. 

Here is some of the spectral data the first instrument has gathered. These spectra were acquired over Ontario, Canada, on December 12, 2008. At long wavelengths, carbon dioxide exhibits a characteristic absorption fingerprint that can be seen in the spectra on the right hand side. Computer analysis of the Carbon Dioxide feature at 1.6 microns using GENSPECT provides accurate estimates of greenhouse gas concentrations on a one-kilometer grid. Calibration and in-orbit performance of Argus 1000 is published in the Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, 2010.