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Document - Newsletter
Earth Online Newsletter - 12 May 2023
This issue of the Earth Online Newsletter covers a selection of the latest news and events from ESA.
Document - Product Document
ATSR-Level-1B-ERn-AT-1-RBT-Product-Notices-Readme
This Readme file contains the Product Notice (PN) information for the ATSR-1 and ATSR-2 Level 1B products:
News - General News
How to request level zero radar data from ERS and Envisat
To apply to use level zero (A)SAR radar data from ESA’s European Remote Sensing satellites (ERS-1 and ERS-2) and its Envisat mission for research purposes, you should prepare and submit an online form – called a Data Service Request – to put forward your proposed project to ESA for evaluation.
Event - Conference
Dragon 3 2014 Symposium
The Dragon 3 2014 Symposium was part of the Dragon 3 Programme, focussed on exploitation of ESA, ESA's Third Party Missions and Chinese Earth observation data for geo-science and applications development in land, ocean and atmospheric applications.
Event - Conference
Dragon 3 2015 Symposium
The Dragon 3 2015 Symposium was part of the Dragon 3 Programme, focussed on exploitation of ESA, ESA's Third Party Missions and Chinese Earth observation data for geo-science and applications development in land, ocean and atmospheric applications.
Event - Conference
Dragon 3 2016 Symposium
The Dragon 3 2016 Symposium served as the close of the Dragon 3 Cooperation Programme (2012 to 2016) and formal kick off for Dragon 4 Cooperation projects.
Activity - Projects
Dragon 3 Cooperation Programme
The Dragon 3 Programme focussed on the exploitation of ESA, ESA's Third Party Missions and Chinese Earth observation data for geo-science and applications development in land, ocean and atmospheric applications.
News - Thematic area articles
Transforming space data into climate action
ESA’s Earth observation activities are playing a key role in the revitalised global drive to combat climate change.
News - General News
Introducing Mirko Albani
In this short introduction, ESA's Heritage Missions Programme Manager describes what he likes most about ESA's long term archive of satellite mission data and his role in the programme.
Activity - Projects
Dragon 2 Cooperation Programme
The Dragon 2 Programme focussed on the exploitation of ESA, ESA's Third Party Missions and Chinese Earth observation data for science and applications development in land, ocean and atmospheric applications.
News - Success Stories
ERS' Contribution to Altimetry
Satellite radar altimetry missions have transformed the way we see Earth and its oceans. Using the ranging capability of radars, they measure the surface topography profile along a satellite’s track.
News - Data Release news
New reprocessing of datasets celebrates 30 years of ERS
The ERS programme celebrated its 30th anniversary on 17 July. Today, we are still exploiting ERS data and experts continue to work on improving the altimeter, radiometer and SAR data the programme acquired.
News - Success Stories
ERS Heritage Data allow for 30 years of science
At their time of launch thirty years ago, the two ERS satellites were the most sophisticated Earth observation spacecraft ever developed and launched by Europe.
News - Infographics
ERS - ESA’s first Earth observation satellites
To mark the 30th anniversary of ERS, we've released a new infographic summarising the mission.
Tools - Apps
Heritage Missions app for iOS
Download the Heritage Missions application to discover what the missions were about, how it worked and what the elements of the space and ground segment that make these missions unique.
Tools - Apps
Heritage Missions app for Android
Download the Heritage Missions application to discover what the missions were about, how it worked and what the elements of the space and ground segment that make these missions unique.
Instrument - Imaging Spectrometers/Radiometers
ATSR
The Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) on board ERS-1 and ERS-2 mission consisted of two instruments, an Infra-Red Radiometer and a Microwave Sounder.
Instrument - Positioning/Navigation
PRARE
The Precise Range And Range-Rate Equipment (PRARE) was a microwave tracking system on board the ERS-1 and ERS-2 missions.
Data - Data Description
ERS PRARE Precise Orbit Product (ERS.ORB.POD/ERS.ORB/PRC)
The precise orbit results from a data reduction process in which all available tracking data (Single-Lens Reflex, radar altimeter crossovers, PRARE range and Doppler data) and most accurate correction, transformation and dynamical models are taken into account and in which high level numerical procedures are applied. These orbits are "optimal" achievable representations of the real orbital motion under the circumstances of tracking situation and the "state of the art" model situation. The precise orbit product for the ERS satellites are the satellite ephemeris (position and velocity vector) including time tag, given in a well-defined reference frame, together with the nominal satellite attitude information and a radial orbit correction. Several orbit solutions are currently distributed: A new set of ORB POD (Precise Orbit Determination - REAPER v2) computed with the most updated model standards for the complete ERS-1 and ERS-2 mission. A previous set of ORB POD (REAPER v1) data already available on the ESA dissemination site since 2014, covering the ERS-1 full mission and the ERS-2 mission up to July 2003. ORB PRC which is the original Precise Orbit dataset computed during the ERS mission operations for ERS-1 and ERS-2. In the new POD dataset (REAPER v2) for the ERS-1 and ERS-2 missions, two different orbit solutions are provided together with the combined solution to be used for processing of the radar altimeter measurements and the determination of geodetic/geophysical products: those computed by DEOS (Delft Institute of Earth Observation and Space Systems), and those generated by ESOC (European Space Operations Centre) using different software (GEODYN and NAPEOS respectively). Careful evaluation of the various solutions of REAPER v2 has shown that the DEOS solution for both ERS-1 and ERS-2 has the best performance and is recommended to be used as reference. See the ERS Orbit Validation Report. For the previous version of the POD data set (REAPER v1), with ERS-2 mission data only up to 2003, three different orbit solutions together with the combined solution are available. These precise orbits for ERS-1 and ERS-2 have been computed at DEOS, ESOC, and GFZ (Deutschen GeoForschungsZentrums) using different software and different altimeter databases. Combined solutions have been created using three individual solutions for each satellite. All orbits were derived using consistent models in the same LPOD2005 terrestrial reference frame. These new orbit solutions show notable improvement with respect to DGME04 orbits (Scharroo and Visser, 1998). Thus, RMS crossover differences of new orbits improved by 4-9 mm. Careful evaluation of the various solutions has shown that the combined solution for both ERS-1 and ERS-2 has the best performance. All POD orbit files (REAPER v1/v2) are available in SP3c format.
Data - Data Description
ERS-1/2 ATSR Averaged Surface Temperature [AT1/AT2_AR__2P]
The Averaged Surface Temperature Product (AST) contains averaged geophysical data at two different resolutions, and with respect to two different averaging schemes: measurement data sets at resolutions of 0.5 by 0.5 degrees and 10 by 10 arcmin with respect to a latitude/longitude grid; other data sets contain data averaged over equal area cells of 50 by 50 km and 17 by 17 km aligned with the satellite ground track. Both top-of-atmosphere and surface data sets are provided. The surface temperature data sets provide, for sea cells, nadir and dual view sea surface temperatures, and for land cells, land surface temperature (currently 11 micron BT) and NDVI. Cloud data is also included. No ADS are included in the AST product; auxiliary data is contained within the MDS. The data sets of the AST product are arranged by surface type and resolution. The 3rd reprocessing of ATSR data was performed in 2013; the processing updates that have been put in place and the scientific improvements are outlined in full in the User Summary Note for the Third ERS ATSR Reprocessing.