Aeolus Level 2C assisted wind fields resulting from NWP Numerical Weather Prediction assimilation processing

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The Level 2C wind product of the Aeolus mission provides ECMWF analysis horizontal wind vectors at the geolocations of assimilated L2B HLOS wind components.  The L2C can therefore be described as an Aeolus-assisted horizontal wind vector product. The L2C is a distinct product, however the L2C and L2B share a common Earth Explorer file template, with the L2C being a superset of the L2B.  The L2C consists of extra datasets appended to the L2B product with information which are relevant to the data assimilation of the L2B winds.

Aeolus L2B Algorithm Theoretical Baseline Document

Aeolus L2B/2C Processor Input/Output Data Definitions Interface Control Document

Aeolus Sensor and Product Description

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The Envisat AATSR Level 1B Brightness Temperature/Radiance product (RBT) contains top of atmosphere (TOA) brightness temperature (BT) values for the infra-red channels and radiance values for the visible channels, on a 1-km pixel grid. Values for each channel and for the nadir and oblique views occupy separate NetCDF files within the Sentinel-SAFE format, along with associated uncertainty estimates. Additional files contain cloud flags, land and water masks, and confidence flags for each image pixel, as well as instrument and ancillary meteorological information. This AATSR product [ENV_AT_1_RBT] in NetCDF format stemming from the 4th AATSR reprocessing, is a continuation of ERS ATSR data and a precursor of Sentinel-3 SLSTR data. It has replaced the former L1B product [ATS_TOA_1P] in Envisat format from the 3rd reprocessing. Users with Envisat-format products are recommended to move to the new Sentinel-SAFE like/NetCDF format products.  The 4th reprocessing of ENVISAT AATSR data was completed in 2022; the processing updates that have been put in place and the expected scientific improvements have been outlined in full in the _$$User Documentation for (A)ATSR 4th Reprocessing Products$$ https://earth.esa.int/documents/20142/37627/QA4EO-VEG-OQC-MEM-4538_User_Documentation_for__A_ATSR_4th_Reprocessing_Level_1.pdf .

Envisat AATSR L1B Brightness Temperature/Radiance [ENV_AT_1_RBT]

<p>GEOSAT-2 Portugal coverage is a collection of a 2021`s data over the Portugal area, including islands. The available dataset has a cloud cover less than 10%, and is acquired up to 1m resolution with Geometric accuracy &lt;6m CE90 based on Copernicus DEM @10m. The following product types are available:</p>

<ul>
	<li><strong>Pan-sharpened (4 bands, 321 Natural Colours or 432 False Colours):</strong> A four-band image, resulting from adding the information of each multispectral band to the panchromatic band. The fusion does not preserves all spectral features of the multispectral bands, so it should not be used for radiometric purposes. Resolution 1m; Bands: All, R-G-B or Ni-R-G</li>
	<li><strong>Bundle: </strong>Panchromatic (1m resolution) + Multispectral bands (4m resolution): five-band image containing the panchromatic and multispectral products packaged together, with band co-registration.</li>
</ul>

<p>The available processing level is L1C orthorectified: a calibrated and radiometrically corrected product, manually orthorectified and resampled to a map grid.</p>

<p> </p>
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	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td rowspan="2" style="background-color: #2856a0; color: white;">Product Type</td>
			<td colspan="2" style="background-color: #2856a0; color: white;">Processing Level and Spatial Resolution</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td style="background-color: #2856a0; color: white;">L1B (native)</td>
			<td style="background-color: #2856a0; color: white;">L1C (ortho)</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Pan-sharpened</td>
			<td>1.0m</td>
			<td>1.0m</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Bundle (PAN+MS)</td>
			<td>1.0m (P), 4.0m (MS)</td>
			<td>1.0m (P), 4.0m(MS)</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

GEOSAT-2 Portugal Coverage 2021

<p>A large number of European cities are covered by this dataset; for each city you can find one or more Cartosat-1 ortho image products and one or more Euro-Maps 3D DSM tiles clipped to the extent of the ortho coverage.</p>

<p>The Euro-Maps 3D DSM data is a homogeneous, 5 m spaced Digital Surface Model semi-automatically derived from 2.5 m in-flight stereo data with a vertical accuracy of 10m. The very detailed and accurate representation of the surface is achieved by using a sophisticated and well adapted algorithm implemented on the basis of the Semi-Global Matching approach. The final product includes several pixel-based quality and traceability layers:</p>

<ul>
	<li>The dsm layer (dsm.tif) contains the elevation heights as a geocoded raster file</li>
	<li>The source layer (src.tif) contains information about the data source for each height value/pixel</li>
	<li>The number layer (num.tif) contains for each height value/pixel the number of IRS-P5 Cartosat-1 stereo pairs used for the generation of the DEM</li>
	<li>The quality layer (qc.tif) is set to 1 for each height/pixel value derived from IRS-P5 Cartosat-1 data and which meets or exceeds the product specifications</li>
	<li>The accuracy vertical layer (acv.tif) contains the absolute vertical accuracy for each quality controlled height value/pixel.</li>
</ul>

<p>The ortho image is a Panchromatic image at 2.5m resolution. The following table defines the offered product types.</p>

<p> </p>
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			<td style="background-color: #2856a0; color: white;"><strong>EO-SIP product type</strong></td>
			<td style="background-color: #2856a0; color: white;"><strong>Description</strong></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PAN_PAM_3O</td>
			<td>IRS-P5 Cartosat-1 ortho image</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DSM_DEM_3D</td>
			<td>IRS-P5 Cartosat-1 DSM</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

European Cities: Cartosat-1 Euro-Maps 3D

<p>The Atmospheric Carbon-dioxide Grating Spectrometer (ACGS) instrument is pushbroom spectrometer operating in NIR and SWIR bands which allows the measuring of CO2 mole fraction.</p>

<p>The available ACGS products have a temporal coverage between March 2017 and January 2020 (not all days included in the time frame):</p>

<ul>
	<li>L1A DS: Sample Dark Calibration sample product</li>
	<li>L1A GL: Sample Glint Sample products</li>
	<li>L1A LS: Sample Lamp Calibration sample product</li>
	<li>L1A ND: Principal-Plane Nadir Sample product</li>
	<li>L1A ZS: Sample Z-Axis Solar Calibration Sample</li>
	<li>L1B CAL DS: Sample Dark Calibration product</li>
	<li>L1B CAL LS: Sample Lamp Calibration product</li>
	<li>L1B CAL ZS: Sample Z-Axis Solar Calibration product</li>
	<li>L1B SCI GL: Sample Glint Science product</li>
	<li>L1B SCI ND: Principal-Plane Nadir Science product</li>
</ul>

<p> </p>

<p>The Cloud Aerosol Polarization Imager (CAPI) is a pushbroom radiometer in VIS, NIR and SWIR bands for the observation of aerosols and clouds optical properties.</p>

<p>The CAPI products are available in a time range from July 2019 and January 2020 (not all days included in the time frame):</p>

<ul>
	<li>L1A ND: Principal-Plane Nadir product</li>
	<li>L1B ND 1000M: Principal-Plane Nadir products at 1000 m resolution (1375 nm, 1640 nm)</li>
	<li>L1B ND 250M: Principal-Plane Nadir products at 250 m resolution (380 nm, 670 nm, 870 nm)</li>
	<li>L1B ND GEOQK: Principal-Plane Nadir georeferenced at 250 m resolution</li>
	<li>L1B ND GEO1K: Principal-Plane Nadir georeferenced at 1000 m resolution</li>
	<li>L1B ND OBC: Principal-Plane Nadir on-board calibrator product</li>
	<li>L2 ND CLM: Principal-Plane Nadir cloud flag product</li>
</ul>

TanSat AGCS and CAPI products

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GOSAT-2

GOSAT (Greenhouse gases Observing Satellite) is a JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) mission within the GCOM (Global Change Observation Mission) program of Japan. The GOSAT mission goals call for the study of the transport mechanisms of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4).

GOSAT-1

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TIROS

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GMS (Japan Geostationary Meteorological Satellite)

GMS-5

Star Camera Assembly (SCA) precisely determines the two GRACE satellite's orientation by tracking them relative to the position of the stars.

GRACE SCA

Instrument

The Laser Retro-Reflector (LRR) is mounted on the Earth-facing panel of Envisat close to the RA-2 antenna to support satellite ranging for precise orbit determination and RA-2 range measurement calibration. Laser tracking provides the distance between the spacecraft and the station and is assimilated in precise orbit determination. It will be used extensively during the commissioning phase and regularly during the mission to verify the stability of the positioning system.

Laser Retro-Reflector consisting of four corner cubes mounted in a small pyramid on the underside of the spacecraft. They provide a means of tracking the GRACE satellites from the ground for backup and orbit verification.

GRACE LRR

Precise orbit determination relies on the data from the GPS receivers providing full global coverage of orbit data. The alternative method of Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) is used as a supporting and independent means for orbit determination. Its limitation is the rather poor global and temporal coverage, but the SLR data is free from ambiguities and directly related to the terrestrial reference frame.

Each of the Swarm satellites is equipped with a Laser Retro-Reflector (LRR) of novel design for external calibration and validation of the onboard GPS receiver. A basic requirement for LRR is to enable the worldwide SLR station network to track the satellite with high accuracy and with a sufficiently high link budget under both night and daytime ranging conditions.

The PRARE (Precise Range and Range-Rate Equipment) instruments, carried aboard ERS-1 and ERS-2, were developed for precise satellite range determination leading to higher-accuracy altitude measurements.

PRARE

A spectrometer is a scientific instrument used to separate and measure spectral components of a physical phenomenon. Spectrometer is a broad term often used to describe instruments that measure a continuous variable of a phenomenon where the spectral components are somehow mixed. In visible light a spectrometer can for instance separate white light and measure individual narrow bands of colour, called a spectrum, while a mass spectrometer measures the spectrum of the masses of the atoms or molecules present in a gas. The first spectrometers were used to split light into an array of separate colours. Spectrometers were developed in early studies of physics, astronomy, and chemistry. The capability of spectroscopy to determine chemical composition drove its advancement and continues to be one of its primary uses. Spectrometers are used in astronomy to analyse the chemical composition of stars and planets, and spectrometers gather data on the origin of the universe. Hyperspectral radiometer—An advanced multispectral sensor that detects hundreds of very narrow spectral bands throughout the visible, near-infrared, and mid-infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. This sensor’s very high spectral resolution facilitates fine discrimination between different targets based on their spectral response in each of the narrow bands. A device that is designed to detect, measure, and analyse the spectral content of incident electromagnetic radiation. Conventional imaging spectrometers use gratings or prisms to disperse the radiation for spectral discrimination.

Spectrometers

Interferometric radiometers are passive imaging instruments for imaging radiation emission from a target scene.

Interferometric Radiometers

By combining different radar images of the same location – a technique known as interferometry – tiny millimetre-scale ground motion can be identified.

Interferometers

A technology demonstration that uses laser interferometry to measure fluctuations in the separation between the two GRACE spacecraft.

GRACE INTERFEROMETER

The accelerometer serves to measure all non-gravitational accelerations on the GRACE satellite due to air drag, solar radiation pressure or attitude control activator impulses initiated by the attitude and orbit control system (AOCS).

GRACE ACC

The Accelerometer measures the Swarm satellite's non-gravitational acceleration in its respective orbit. The instrument helps scientists to study factors that cause non-gravitational accelerations such as air drag, winds, Earth albedo, and direct solar radiation pressure on the spacecraft.

HRPAN

SAPHIR

The Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS), a cross-track scanner with 22 channels, provides sounding observations needed to retrieve profiles of atmospheric temperature and moisture for civilian operational weather forecasting as well as continuity of these measurements for climate monitoring purposes. Like the long heritage of its predecessors, ATMS combines all the channels of the preceding AMSU-A1, AMSU-A2, and AMSU-B sensors into a single package with considerable savings in mass, power, and volume.[Source: NPP home page, http://npp.gsfc.nasa.gov/atms.html].

ATMS

TRSR

The SSTI (Satellite to Satellite Tracking Instrument)is a state-of-the-art GPS receiver that has been designed to operate in a low-Earth orbit environment. The objective is to provide the SST-hl (Satellite-to-Satellite Tracking - high/low) contribution to the gravity field recovery, by the simultaneous tracking of up to 12 GPS satellite signals. In addition, SSTI provides data for precise orbit determination; it is also used for real-time on-board navigation and attitude-reference-frame determination. The SSTI instrument is based on the Lagrange architecture, a flight-proven device of Laben, Milan, Italy, a unit of Thales Alenia Space, Italy

SSTI

GAP (GPS Attitude and Positioning Experiment) instrument objective is to measure S/C velocity and attitude as well as TEC (Total Electron Content) of the ionosphere. The relative phase delay of signals in both the L1 and L2 bands from a GPS satellite occulted by the limb ionosphere provide large-scale (1000's of km) information on how the total electron content responds to magnetospheric perturbations. GAP consists of two components:
- GAP-A: Three single-frequency (L1) GPS receivers and four patch antennas. This package is being used to provide an accurate absolute time reference, spacecraft 3-D attitude, and post-processed spacecraft position and velocity.
- GAP-O: The objective is to provide ionospheric tomography observations.

GNSS

A tenth of Earth’s land surface is permanently occupied by ice sheets or glaciers, but the domain of the cryosphere – that part of the world where snow and ice can form – extends three times further still. The cryosphere is an important regulator of global climate, its bright albedo reflecting sunlight back to space and its presence influencing regional weather and global ocean currents. Some 77% of the globes freshwater are bound up within the ice – but the cryosphere appears disproportionately sensitive to the effects of global warming.

Imaging radar systems like those of ERS and Envisat pierce through clouds or seasonal darkness to chart ice extent, possessing sensitivity to different ice types – from kilometres - thick ice sheets to new-born floating ‘pancake’ ice – supplemented by optical observations. Radar altimeters gather data on changing ice height and mass: in 2009 ESA launched CryoSat as the first altimetry mission specifically designed to accurately measure the thickness of sea ice and land ice margins.

Cryosphere

Thematic area

There are three processes by which glaciation affects the landscape - erosion, transportation and deposition. Meanwhile, freeze-thaw describes the action of glacial meltwater on joints, cracks and hollows in rock. When the temperature reaches freezing point, the water inside cracks freezes, expands and causes the cracks to widen. When the temperature rises, the water thaws and contracts and this eventually causes rocks to break up. An ice sheet is a mass of glacial land ice extending more than 50,000 square kilometres. Two ice sheets on Earth, between them containing 99% of fresh water on Earth, cover most of Greenland and Antarctica.

Glaciers and Ice Sheets

Sea ice is ocean water that freezes - to the sea floor (fast ice), floating on the surface (drift ice) or packed together (pack ice). Because of vast amounts of water added to or removed from the oceans and atmosphere, the behaviour of polar ice packs have a significant impact of the global changes in climate.

Sea Ice

Snow and ice are features of some of the most inaccessible parts of the world. While 10% of Earth’s land surface is permanently occupied by ice sheets or glaciers, the cryosphere – where snow and ice can form – extends three times further. The cryosphere is an important regulator of global climate, its bright albedo reflecting sunlight back to space and its presence influencing regional weather and global ocean currents. The cryosphere appears disproportionately sensitive to the effects of global warming. Monitoring the environmental conditions of the polar regions includes the study of animal migration, ice mass balance, fresh water ice, snowpack conditions and monitoring of icebergs.

Snow and Ice

Permafrost, or permanently frozen ground, is soil, sediment, or rock that remains at or below 0°C for at least two years. The enormous permafrost areas of the world show seasonal change which has impact on not only vegetation and hydrological cycles, but also on the planning and safety of huge gas and oil pipelines which traverse these areas. Frozen ground data are critical to understanding environmental change, validating models, and building and maintaining structures in seasonal frost and permafrost regions.

Frozen Ground and Permafrost

Earth’s land surface represents the most varied terrain in the whole of the Solar System, gradually transformed by geological motion, atmospheric weathering and sustained biological activity. Its evolution continues to this day, helped along by humanity: deserts expand, forests are cleared and cities grow. Satellite instruments allow land cover to be classified on an objective global basis, and identify land cover change. They can pinpoint wilderness areas under threat from sprawling settlements, for example, or track patterns of soil erosion. And land cover classification sharpens the accuracy of climate models: pinning down the contributions of localised carbon ‘sources’ and ‘sinks’ for example, or the varied albedos of differing biomass or mineral surfaces. Other types of instruments contribute more radiometers such as Envisat’s AATSR takes the temperature of Earth’s land, while radar altimetry and synthetic aperture radar interferometry build up accurate three-dimensional maps of its surface contours.

Land Surface

Conduction and convection are the two common modes of heat transfer in Earth. Conduction arises from interactions between neighbouring atoms, whereas convection transports heat by fluid movement resulting from the interaction between gravity and thermally induced density changes.

Surface Radiative Properties

Earth’s centre is a dense metallic sphere with a solid inner part and a liquid outer part, mainly of iron and nickel. Surrounding the core is a mantle of iron-rich silicates containing sonic metallic iron – around the mantle is the crust. Even in the Himalayas, the crust represents less than 1 percent of the Earth's radius. Our immediate contact is with the uppermost layer of crust: oceans, mountains and sedimentary systems. Radioactive decay in the crust and mantle produces about 80 percent of the heat flowing to Earth's surface; the remainder is from cooling of the core.

Surface Thermal Properties

Remote-sensing techniques can be used to carry out landscape assessments to assess large areas for archaeological potential, including environments where it is not feasible to deploy topographic or geophysical surveys. LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is an excellent way of capturing surface data over entire landscapes. This technique can penetrate vegetation cover to record the ground surface.

Landscape

In Earth science, erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location.

Erosion and Sedimentation

Geomorphology is the study of landforms - Earth has many varieties of landforms. How landforms are different from one another is fundamental to geomorphology, which lies at the interface between geology and many other disciplines working to understand surface processes. The applications of geomorphic knowledge can range from engineering projects dealing with the physical properties of landforms to geological studies of the record of past climate change.

Geomorphic Landforms and Processes

Soils are the dynamic skin of Earth, formed by the interaction of minerals, organic materials, organisms, water and air. Soil moisture, the water contained within soil particles, is an important player in Earth's water cycle. It is essential for plant life and influences weather and climate. Soil properties that have been measured using remote sensing approaches include mineralogy, texture, soil iron, soil moisture, soil organic carbon, soil salinity and carbonate content. In sparsely vegetated areas, successful use of space borne measurements using optical, passive and active microwave instruments has occurred.

Soils

Soil moisture, the water contained within soil particles, is an important player in Earth's water cycle. It is essential for plant life and influences weather and climate. Satellite readings of soil moisture will help scientists better understand the climate system and have potential for a wide range of applications, from advancing climate models, weather forecasts, drought monitoring and flood prediction to informing water management decisions and aiding in predictions of agricultural productivity.

Soil Moisture

Soil properties that have been measured using remote sensing approaches include mineralogy, texture, soil iron, soil moisture, soil organic carbon, soil salinity and carbonate content. In sparsely vegetated areas, successful use of space borne measurements using optical, passive and active microwave instruments has occurred.

Soil Texture

Soil properties that have been measured using remote sensing approaches include mineralogy, texture, soil iron, soil moisture, soil organic carbon, soil salinity and carbonate content.

Soil Classification

Soil constituents consisting of a wide range of organic (carbonaceous) substances, including living organisms, carbonaceous remains of organisms which once occupied the soil, and organic compounds produced by current and past metabolism in the soil.

Organic Matter

Satellite instruments allow land cover to be classified on an objective global basis, and identify land cover change. They can pinpoint wilderness areas under threat from sprawling settlements, for example, or track patterns of soil erosion.

Soil Erosion

Any measure of the carbon content of the soil, in organic fractions or inorganic fractions.

Carbon

Permafrost

Remote sensing can be used for land-cover characterisation, mapping, and monitoring from the local to the global scale. The availability and accessibility of accurate and timely land-cover data sets play an important role in many global change studies, highlighting the need for better land-use and land-cover change information at multiple scales. A synthesis of current knowledge in remote sensing of land-use and land-cover science promotes more effective use of Earth observation data and technology to assess, monitor, and manage land resources.

Aeolus Level 2C assisted wind fields resulting from NWP Numerical Weather Prediction assimilation processing

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