AOS is a major international collaborative effort involving the United States, Canada, Japan, Italy, and France. Its objective is to optimize the study of the relationships between aerosols, clouds, atmospheric convection, and precipitation. The project includes six satellites and suborbital platforms both in the air and on the ground. It aims to provide critical data to improve weather, air quality, and climate forecasts.

"Working on climate missions is something that really matters to us at Airbus. Just a few weeks after launch of the EarthCARE mission with Europe and Japan, it is an honour to be part of another climate mission, this time NASA-led with international partners," said Alain Faure, Head of Space Systems at Airbus. "I would like to thank the French Space Agency, CNES, for supporting European industry: with this contract Airbus is further reinforcing its role in helping better understand clouds, weather and climate."

The C2OMODO mission is a key part of the AOS, focusing on providing detailed observations of vertical air motions and precipitation properties in convective storms. This data is crucial for understanding intense precipitation formation and improving the accuracy of weather models. C2OMODO will offer the first-ever global view of these storm properties, leading to significant advancements in our ability to forecast weather and understand climate dynamics.

The C2OMODO high-frequency microwave radiometers will be designed and built in Toulouse, France. They will be installed on two AOS satellites, operating together in an inclined orbit: AOS-Storm, led by the United States, and the Precipitation Measuring Mission (PMM), led by Japan.

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