earth online

About ERS

ERS

The ERS programme was composed of two missions, ERS-1 and ERS-2, which were launched into the same orbit in 1991 and 1995 respectively. The two spacecraft were designed as identical twins with one important difference – ERS-2 included an extra instrument (GOME) designed to monitor ozone levels in the atmosphere.

Due to the satellites' shared orbit, a tandem mission was implemented following the launch of ERS-2, whereby ERS-2 passed the same point on the ground one day later than ERS-1.

The 'ERS tandem mission' doubled the number of measurement points for the radar altimeter and, more importantly laid the basis for an accurate, three-dimensional digital map of Earth's land surfaces, which for some of Earth's regions would have been impossible.

Following nine years of excellent service, over three times its planned lifetime, the ERS-1 mission ended on 10 March 2000 due to a failure in the on board attitude control system.

Since its launch on 17 July 1991 ERS-1 made 45,000 orbits, acquiring more than 1.5 million individual Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) scenes.

ESA's venerable ERS-2 satellite followed its predecessor's example, greatly exceeding its three year life span with 16 years of successful operations. The satellite was safely taken out of service on 5 September 2011, due to low levels of remaining fuel. From when it was launched on 21 April 1995, ERS-2 made 85,000 orbits, travelling 3.5 billion km.

ERS Objectives

ERS was the first ESA programme in Earth observation to provide microwave spectrum-based environmental monitoring. The missions’ range of instruments were capable of monitoring the land, oceans, and atmosphere, and more specifically sea ice, geology, forestry, wave phenomena bathymetry, meteorological events and many more scientific fields.

ERS Instruments

ATSR
The Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) measured sea-surface temperatures and cloud-top temperatures.


find out more
GOME
The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) was a nadir-scanning ultraviolet and visible spectrometer for global monitoring of atmospheric ozone.

find out more
MWR
The Microwave Radiometer (MWR) measured the integrated atmospheric water vapour column and cloud liquid water content, as correction terms for the radar altimeter signal. find out more
RA
The Radar Altimeter (RA) was a Ku-band (13.8 GHz) nadir-pointing active microwave sensor designed to measure the time return echoes from ocean and ice surfaces.

find out more
SAR
The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) wave mode provided two-dimensional spectra of ocean surface waves.


find out more
WS
The Wind Scatterometer (WS) obtained information on wind speed and direction at the sea surface for incorporation into models, global statistics and climatological datasets.
find out more
LRR ERS-1
The Laser Retro Reflector (LRR) was a passive device used as a reflector by ground-based SLR stations using high-power pulsed lasers.
find out more
PRARE ERS-1
The Precise Range And Range-Rate Equipment (PRARE) was a compact, space-borne, two-way, two-frequency microwave satellite tracking system.
find out more
Tweet