TANGO

The Twin Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Observers (TANGO) mission is a Cubesat satellite mission comprising two agile satellites: TANGO-Carbon and TANGO-Nitro. They fly in close formation with a time difference of less than 1 minute. TANGO is a candidate mission of ESA’s SCOUT program to be launched in 2026 and envisages a unique European contribution to monitoring globally and independently the emission of anthropogenic greenhouse gases over the period 2026-2030.

TANGO measures emissions of the greenhouse gases methane (CH₄) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) at the level of individual industrial facilities and power plants. The mission will demonstrate a distributed monitoring system that will pave the way for future larger constellations of Cubesats allowing for enhanced coverage and temporal resolution.

The TANGO mission consists of two agile satellite buses flying in formation, each carrying one spectrometer. TANGO-Carbon measures spectral radiances in the shortwave infrared part of the solar spectrum (1.6 µm) to detect moderate to strong emissions of CH₄ (≥ 5 kt/yr) and CO₂ (≥ 2.5 Mt/yr). The instrument has a field of view of 30 x 30 km² at spatial resolutions small enough to monitor individual large industrial facilities (300 x 300 m²), with accuracy to determine emissions based on a single observation. Using the same strategy, TANGO-Nitro yields collocated NO₂ observations from radiance measurements in the visible spectral range, supporting plume detection and exploiting the use of CO₂/NO₂ ratio.

Prototype of TANGO. Credit: ISISPACE Group