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MISSIONS

Explore the European Space Agency's Earth Observation satellite missions. Learn all about ESA's dedicated Earth Explorers or collaborations with other agencies through the Third Party Missions programme.

  • Mission - Earth Explorers

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    Aeolus

    The Aeolus mission which was launched into space on 22 August 2018 and was retired on 30 April 2023, provided global observations of wind profiles from space to improve the quality of weather forecasts, and to advance our understanding of atmospheric dynamics and climate processes.

  • Mission - Earth Explorers

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    Biomass

    The objective of the Biomass mission is to determine the global distribution of forest biomass.

  • Mission - Earth Watch

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    PROBA-V

    The PROBA-V mission provides multispectral images to study the evolution of the vegetation cover on a daily and global basis.

  • Mission - Third Party Missions

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    PROBA-1

    PROBA-1 is a technology demonstration satellite that later became an operational Earth observation mission.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

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    Envisat

    Envisat was ESA's successor to ERS. Envisat carried ten instruments aboard for a wide range of Earth observing fields. The mission was operational from 2002 to 2012.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

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    ERS

    The ERS programme was composed of two missions, ERS-1 and ERS-2, which together observed the Earth for 20 years, from 1991 to 2011.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

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    MOS-1/1B

    MOS-1 and 1B, Japan’s first marine observation satellites, were designed to monitor ocean currents, sea surface temperature, atmospheric water vapour, ocean chlorophyll levels, precipitation, and land vegetation.

  • Mission - Third Party Missions

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    WorldView-4

    WorldView-4 was an imaging and environment-monitoring satellite from Maxar of the United States, which offered very high resolution imagery.

  • Mission - Third Party Missions

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    WorldView-1

    WorldView-1 helped meet the growing commercial demand for multi-spectral geospatial imagery.

  • Mission - Third Party Missions

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    WorldView Series

    The WorldView constellation are environment-monitoring satellites that have been supplying imagery since 2007.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

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    RADARSAT

    The RADARSAT programme consists of a pair of remote sensing satellites from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

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    NOAA POES

    NOAA's AVHRR sensor is carried on the POES mission, a constellation of polar orbiting weather satellites.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

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    SPOT

    The SPOT (from French "Satellite pour l'Observation de la Terre") series of missions has been supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery since 1986.

  • Mission - Third Party Missions

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    SkySat

    SkySat is a constellation of high-resolution Earth imaging satellites from the commercial company Planet Labs.

  • Mission - Third Party Missions

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    WorldView-3

    WorldView-3 is the first multi-payload, super-spectral, high-resolution commercial satellite sensor operating at an altitude of 617 km. WorldView-3 is capable of collecting up to 680,000 square km per day.

  • Mission - Third Party Missions

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    WorldView-2

    WorldView-2 is an environment-monitoring satellite from Maxar which presents images as the human eye can perceive them, creating a more realistic 'true colour' view of the world.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

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    SPOT 7

    SPOT 7 (also known as Azersky), like all of the other SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.

  • Mission - Third Party Missions

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    SPOT 6

    SPOT 6, like all the SPOT missions, is aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

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    SPOT 5

    SPOT 5, like all the SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

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    SPOT 4

    SPOT 4, like all the SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.