(This introduction should have the Executive Summary from the proposal submitted to ESA in Annex A appended to complete the description of the study and the G-CLASS mission concept. This is suitable for open publication.)
The UK Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation (CEOI) supported Cranfield University and Telespazio Vega in the preparation of a proposal in response to ESA’s Earth Explorer 10 call for ideas (open 25 Sep 2017 to 2 Mar 2018). The proposal is for the Geosynchronous – Continental Land Atmosphere Sensing System (G-CLASS) mission, and specifically for it to enable new science of the diurnal water cycle and eventual related services. The grant funded staff time at the project partners from November 2017 to March 2018 and a G-CLASS proposal workshop held a month before proposal submission. A summary of the G-CLASS mission is provided in Annex A.