Yasjka Meijer

Yasjka Meijer gained a Master’s degree in Physics and Astronomy at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 1997. He then worked at the National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in Lauder, New Zealand, making lidar measurements of ozone vertical profiles. In 2005, he earned his PhD in Atmospheric Physics at the Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Later as a scientist at the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in Bilthoven, The Netherlands, he investigated the quality and characteristics of atmospheric measurements from satellite instruments using global, ground-based observations. He was also involved in definition of the GMES Atmospheric Service (now CAMS) and TROPOMI (now on Sentinel-5 Precursor) user requirements.

Dr. Meijer began work for the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2007. As mission scientist, he managed the mission requirements, initiated study activities and led the Mission Advisory Groups (MAG) during the definition phases of Copernicus Sentinel-4/5 mission and ESA’s Earth Explorer candidate missions TRAQ and CarbonSat.

Since 2015 he is responsible for defining the mission requirements for the Copernicus CO2 Monitoring (CO2M) mission. In collaboration with the European Commission (EC), he led the CO2 Monitoring Task Force group focusing on the space segment, and then the MAG for the CO2M Mission in the definition phase. He is the lead author of the CO2M Mission Requirements Document (MRD) and ESA’s CO2M Mission Scientist for the implementation phase now.

Dr. Meijer is member of the EC’s CO2 Monitoring Task Force and the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) Greenhouse Gas Task Team. He was second author of the CEOS Greenhouse Gas White Paper describing a joint view on the virtual constellation to measure greenhouse gases. He maintains a close interface with other space agencies (among others EUMETSAT, NASA, JAXA, CNES) and Copernicus Services. He (co-)authored over 40 publications in refereed journals and reports.