Earth Explorers
ESA's Earth Explorer missions are dedicated to addressing key scientific challenges identified by the EO community. Each mission employs the latest technological developments to observe different EO fields.
What are Earth Explorers?
The Earth Explorers are a family of satellites that share the common goal of advancing Earth science by helping answer principle scientific questions through observation of Earth’s key systems.
The Earth Explorers are each dedicated to observing a different aspect of Earth’s system, such as the Cryosphere, Hydrosphere, Atmosphere and Ionosphere as well as the Earth’s interior. The overarching objective of these missions is to understand the Earth as a geosphere and the complex interactions between spheres and sub-spheres.
Interact with 3D models of ESA satellites, which visualise their design and payload, and see case studies highlighting data applications.
Current missions from the programme include CryoSat, EarthCARE, SMOS and Swarm. The Earth Explorer family will continue to grow in the future through the addition of new missions such as Biomass and FLEX.
Earth Explorers brochure
Pioneering science missions: Summarising ESA’s Earth Explorers
Meet the Mission Managers
An overview of the EarthCARE mission
An overview of the SMOS mission
An overview of the Biomass mission
An overview of the Aeolus mission
Featured Missions
Aeolus
Biomass
CryoSat
EarthCARE
FLEX
GOCE
SMOS
Swarm
Discover Latest Data
Latest Data Release News
Update of Dynamic Sea Ice Concentration auxiliary data source in CryoSat Level-2 Ice products
Additional Swarm Langmuir probe Ion Drift, density and effective Mass dataset available
Additional Swarm EFI TII Raw And Corrected Imagery and Spectra (TRACIS) dataset available
