The Argus microspectrometer, launched in April aboard the University of Toronto’s CanX-2 microsatellite, can accurately detect sources of industrial pollution on earth, to a resolution of one kilometre.

“We’re very excited about this. It’s a Canadian first,” says principal investigator Dr. Brendan Quine, a professor in York’s Department of Earth & Space Sciences & Engineering.

Argus will enable scientists to determine local levels of carbon dioxide and other climate change gases by recording infrared spectra, which contain information about atmospheric composition.

Developed in partnership with Thoth Technology, it is the first space instrument to be built and tested in York’s space engineering laboratory, part of the university’s Centre for Research in Earth & Space Science (CRESS).

The device, which is small enough to fit in the palm of an adult’s hand, transmits data via infrared radiation emitted to space.

“In order to get it onto the microsatellite, we had to miniaturize everything,” says Quine. To meet that challenge, his team reduced a spectrometer – normally the size of a laser printer – to the size of a box of paperclips. The resulting instrument weighs only 230 grams.

Analysis of data will take months. Quine is confident of its value in the fight against global warming. “A global pollution-monitoring system is critical in order to quantify progress towards emission-reduction targets,” he says.

Quine is currently seeking partners for more widespread deployment. “We need to fly a network of about one hundred Argus instruments in order to quantify pollution accurately and build detailed pollution maps.”

York University is home to the only undergraduate space engineering program in Canada.

Media contact:
Melissa Hughes, Media Relations, York University: 416 736 2100 x22097, mehughes@yorku.ca

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