Controlling environmental impact of the launcher in flight

The most immediate pollution generated by the launcher is the combustion cloud due to the mixture of products given off by the solid propellant boosters and the drenching water, which cools the installation on lift-off.

* Pollution:               

  -  outgassing of combustion products (alumina and hydrochloric gas) 

  -  if an explosion occurs in flight, outgassing of nitrogen peroxide and hydrazine product (resulting from the destruction of satellites and the Ariane G version)

  -  risk of accident during retrieval of the EAPs in the Atlantic Ocean and then their transport

* The main arrangement introduced is the Environment Measurement Plan (PME-Plan de Mesure Environnement) deployed for each launch. It covers 300 to 600 regulatory and specific measurements in the near field and the far field:

- measurement of air quality on a continual basis: this is done via a network of 24 Codex sensors in Kourou, Sinnamary and the whole of the CSG. These sensors, which are activated a few minutes before the launch and switched off a few hours later, measure fall-out of hydrochloric gas (nitrogen peroxide and hydrazine products are measured in the event of an accident to the launcher). Five of these  sensors are portable so that they can be located according to the computer simulation of ground fall-back of the combustion cloud.

- Fall back of the combustion cloud from the EAPs: installation of 45 distilled-water tanks for monitoring the deposit of alumina particles and   hydrochloric acid and then mapping the impact of the cloud on the ground.

- flora: installation of water tanks to retrieve polluted run-off water (rainfall impregnated with particles of leaves it has rinsed)

- fauna: a partnership with scientific organisations to take measurements of bird life and aquatic life

- water quality: installation of an automatic sampler, which takes measurements twice a year in the Karouabo creek.

NB: During the first launches of Ariane 5, noise measurements were taken as well as videos and infrared measurements, to monitor and evaluate the temperature within the combustion cloud. This is no longer done since, while this data is indispensable, the phenomena are repeated in an identical fashion from one launch to another.