The COP software for development and testing of the ExoMars instrument MicroMED

Abstract

We present a dedicated software for assessing the performances of an Optical Particle Counter, the most common sensor used to monitor the atmospheric dust. The software is called COP and has been developed in the frame of the MicroMED project, the first OPC designed for extraterrestrial environment and selected for the ExoMars space mission. We describe its functioning and compare its result to the laboratory data acquired during the validation and calibration process of the instrument. COP has proven its usefulness along the whole instrument development and integration chain and can be adapted to the study of any Optical Particle Counter.