AATSR
About AATSR
The Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) was one of nine instruments on board the Envisat satellite. It was the third in a series of instruments designed primarily to measure Sea Surface Temperature (SST) remotely, following on from ATSR-1 and ATSR-2 on board ERS-1 and ERS-2, respectively.
AATSR was operational from 23 July 2002 to 8 April 2012, when the Envisat mission ended.
AATSR was funded by the (then) UK’s Department of the Environment (DoE) in order to support their programme of climate prediction and research. It was developed and operated in collaboration with ESA. There was also a significant Australian contribution to the AATSR programme, which was managed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
Data Description
Envisat AATSR products, in accordance with the ESA Earth Observation Data Policy, are freely available to registered users. Read more about the available products and the registration process which is required to access them. Read more about the available products and the registration process which is required to access them:
Level 2 datasets are now generated under the ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI):
- Land Surface Temperature (LST) CCI
- Sea Surface Temperature (SST) CCI
Data Tools
Tools available for visualising, processing and analysing AATSR data:
SNAP
The Sentinel Application Platform (SNAP) is a common architecture for all Sentinel Toolboxes (including the Sentinel-3 Toolbox). It is ideal for Earth Observation processing and analysis due to technological innovations.
Sentinel-3 Toolbox
The Sentinel-3 Toolbox consists of a rich set of visualisation, analysis and processing tools for the exploitation of OLCI and SLSTR data from the upcoming Sentinel-3 mission. As a multi-mission remote sensing toolbox, it supports ESA's Envisat mission (MERIS and AATSR instruments) in both Sentinel/SAFE-like and heritage Envisat formats.
FIND OUT MOREAuxiliary Data
Auxiliary data from ground or airborne sources is sometimes used to help produce data products. Auxiliary data files for AATSR data products are available to download.
AATSR Cal/Val
The goal of AATSR calibration and validation activities was to verify the accuracy and quality of data the instrument acquired.
Instrument and instrument data calibration activities involve pre- and post-launch measurements that are used to characterise the instruments fully, and subsequently configure the ground segment processors to provide calibrated products (Level 1 products). Subsequent validation activities involve the validation of geophysical products (Level 2 products) against independent geophysical measurements (i.e. in-situ measurements). Overall, the latter is used to derive the accuracy and quality of the instrument data.
AATSR Quality Control Reports
Quality Control is monitoring routinely the status of the spacecraft (instrument and satellite) and to check if the derived products meet the quality requirements throughout the mission life-time. Product availability, product anomalies, daily and monthly reports are available for AATSR quality monitoring.
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