Dutch to lobby for new climate satellite at European conference

The Hague - Dutch Economy Minister Maria van der Hoeven will lobby her European colleagues to support the financing of a new climate satellite developed by the Dutch, a ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Dutch are hosting the triennial European Space Conference in The Hague.

The Dutch government has reserved 78 million euros (100.54 million dollars) to finance the 115-million-euro Tropospheric Ozone- Monitoring Instrument or Tropomi.

The Tropomi is a measuring instrument for ozone in the troposphere, the lowest part of the atmosphere containing 80 per cent of the world's air.

The Tropomi would be the successor of similar measuring instruments - the Gome, Omi and Sciamachy - that are already providing information about carbon dioxide emissions and other forms of air pollution in the atmosphere.

The new satellite incorporates the unique characteristics of all its predecessors and has improvements including a wide lens that can take images in an unusually broad spectrum.

The images also have a much higher resolution than before.

With its improved technology, Tropomi is expected to provide further insight into the causes of climate change and air pollution.

The Tropomi was developed by the Dutch royal climate institute KNMI, Dutch Space, the governmental technology research institute TNO and the Dutch institute for aircraft development and space, NIVR. (dpa)

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