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News - Thematic area articles
Global understanding of Earth's land surfaces greatly boosted by satellite data
ESA perform land surface monitoring with a range of instruments onboard satellites acquiring optical and radar data. Collections of data from these missions are freely available for research purposes.
News - Success Stories
New worldwide dataset captures the planet in fine detail
Scientists have developed an open source planetwide dataset of high-resolution Earth observation imagery, thanks to commercial data delivered by ESA’s Third Party Missions (TPM) programme.
Event - Training
EO Summer School 5
ESA's series of summer schools, on Monitoring of the Earth System, aims to promote the exploitation of Earth observation data.
Event - Training
EO Summer School 4
ESA's series of summer schools, on Monitoring of the Earth System, aims to promote the exploitation of Earth observation data.
Event - Training
EO Summer School 3
ESA's series of summer schools, on Monitoring of the Earth System, aims to promote the exploitation of Earth observation data.
Event - Conference
Living Planet Symposium 2022
Learn about the 2022 edition of ESA's Living Planet Symposium.
News - Data Release news
Spot Extended Area mode added to ICEYE on-demand portfolio
As an evolution of Spot mode, Spot Extended Area products are now available with the same resolution of Spot data (ground resolution of 1 m) but enabling to cover the area of 225 km2 (15 x 15 km) in a single SAR image.
News - Thematic area articles
Space helps monitor Earth’s changing biosphere
Earth’s biosphere is continually changing. Through its pioneering Earth observation missions, ESA is making critical contributions to monitor these changes and their impacts on Earth’s water and carbon cycles.
News - Data Release news
New Landsat-8 Collection-2 Level 1 and Level 2 data now available
Within ESA’s Landsat offering, access to the European coverage of Landsat-8 Collection-2 Level 1 and Level 2 data is now available.
News - Thematic area articles
Satellite data boost global understanding of land surface
Understanding our changing land surface is essential in the study of climate change. Satellites are used to monitor changes to the material that covers Earth’s surface, so-called land cover, such as vegetation and water.
Data - Data Description
Landsat 8 Collection 2 European Coverage
This dataset contains the European Coverage of Landsat-8 Collection 2 data, both Level 1 and Level 2, since the beginning of the mission. Landsat-8 Collection 2 is the result of reprocessing effort on the archive and on fresh products with significant improvement with respect to Collection 1 on data quality, obtained by means of advancements in data processing and algorithm development. The primary characteristic is a relevant improvement in the absolute geolocation accuracy (now re-baselined to the European Space Agency Copernicus Sentinel-2 Global Reference Image, GRI) but includes also updated digital elevation modelling sources, improved Radiometric Calibration (even correction for the TIRS striping effect), enhanced Quality Assessment Bands, updated and consistent metadata files and usage of Cloud Optimized Georeferenced (COG) Tagged Image File Format. Landsat-8 level 1 products combine data from the 2 Landsat instruments, OLI and TIRS. The level 1 products generated can be either L1TP or L1GT: L1TP - Level 1 Precision Terrain (Corrected) (L1T) products: Radiometrically calibrated and orthorectified using ground control points (GCPs) and digital elevation model (DEM) data to correct for relief displacement. The highest quality Level-1 products suitable for pixel-level time series analysis. GCPs used for L1TP correction are derived from the Global Land Survey 2000 (GLS2000) data set. L1GT - Level 1 Systematic Terrain (Corrected) (L1GT) products: L1GT data products consist of L0 product data with systematic radiometric, geometric and terrain corrections applied and resampled for registration to a cartographic projection, referenced to the WGS84, G873, or current version. The dissemination server contains three different classes of Level1 products Real Time (RT): Newly acquired Landsat-8 OLI/TIRS data are processed upon downlink but use an initial TIRS line-of-sight model parameters; the data is made available in less than 12 hours (4-6 hours typically). Once the data have been reprocessed with the refined TIRS parameters, the products are transitioned to either Tier 1 or Tier 2 and removed from the Real-Time tier (in 14-16 days). Tier 1 (T1): Landsat scenes with the highest available data quality are placed into Tier 1 and are considered suitable for time-series analysis. Tier 1 includes Level-1 Precision and Terrain (L1TP) corrected data that have well-characterized radiometry and are inter-calibrated across the different Landsat instruments. The georegistration of Tier 1 scenes is consistent and within prescribed image-to-image tolerances of ≦ 12-meter radial root mean square error (RMSE). Tier 2 (T2): Landsat scenes not meeting Tier 1 criteria during processing are assigned to Tier 2. Tier 2 scenes adhere to the same radiometric standard as Tier 1 scenes, but do not meet the Tier 1 geometry specification due to less accurate orbital information (specific to older Landsat sensors), significant cloud cover, insufficient ground control, or other factors. This includes Systematic Terrain (L1GT) and Systematic (L1GS) processed data. Landsat-8 level 2 products are generated from L1GT and L1TP Level 1 products that meet the <76 degrees Solar Zenith Angle constraint and include the required auxiliary data inputs to generate a scientifically viable product. The data are available a couple of days after the Level1 T1/T2. The level 2 products generated can be L2SP or L2SR: L2SP - Level 2 Science Products (L2SP) products: include Surface Reflectance (SR), Surface Temperature (ST), ST intermediate bands, an angle coefficients file, and Quality Assessment (QA) Bands. L2SR - Level 2 Surface Reflectance (L2SR) products: include Surface Reflectance (SR), an angle coefficients file, and Quality Assessment (QA) Bands; it is generated if ST could not be generated Two different categories of Level 1 products are offered: LC with Optical, Thermal and Quality Map images, LO with Optical and Quality Map images (Thermal not available). For the Level 2 data, only LC combined products are generated
News - Data Release news
New Landsat-8 Collection-2 Level 1 and Level 2 data available from January
From the beginning of 2022, ESA will start the distribution of the European coverage of Landsat-8 Collection-2 Level 1 and Level 2 products.
Event - Workshop
Space and the Arctic 2009 Workshop
Temperatures in the Arctic are rising at an unprecedented rate. This workshop looked at the needs and challenges of working and living in the rapidly changing Arctic and explore how space-based services might help to meet those needs.
News - Infographics
An overview of ESA's Third Party Missions programme
ESA’s Third Party Missions programme consists of almost 50 satellite missions, which are owned by organisations around the world. ESA has agreements with these organisations to acquire, process, and distribute data from their missions
News - Events and Proceedings
Φ-Week Triumphs
In its fourth edition, Φ-Week presented the scientific community with amazing opportunities and projects—thus running alongside innovation at 360 degrees.
Data - Data Description
SPOT-6 to 7 full archive and tasking
The SPOT 6 and 7 satellites ensure data continuity with the no longer operational SPOT 5 satellite and provide an archive of very high resolution optical acquisition as well as the possibility to task the satellites for new acquisitions. The ortho-products are automatically generated by the SPOT 6 and 7 ground segment, based on SRTM database or Reference3D when available. The projection available for SPOT 6 and 7 ortho-products is UTM, datum WGS84. Bands combinations: Pansharpened: colour image at 1.5 m resolution Bundle: 1.5 m panchromatic image and 6 m multispectral image Geometric processing levels: Primary: The Primary product is the processing level closest to the natural image acquired by the sensor. This product restores perfect collection conditions: the sensor is placed in rectilinear geometry, and the image is clear of all radiometric distortion. Standard Ortho: The Ortho product is a georeferenced image in Earth geometry, corrected from acquisition and terrain off-nadir effects. Tailored ortho: Aside from the Standard Ortho product, when different specifications are needed, a custom orthorectification, with a more precise 3D model provided by the client or acquired for the purpose, can be provided on demand.
Data - Data Description
SPOT 6 and 7 ESA archive
The SPOT 6 and 7 ESA archive is a dataset of SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 products that ESA collected over the years. The dataset regularly grows as ESA collects new SPOT 6 and 7 products. SPOT 6 and 7 Primary and Ortho products can be available in the following modes: Panchromatic image at 1.5m resolution Pansharpened colour image at 1.5m resolution Multispectral image in 4 spectral bands at 6m resolution Bundle (1.5m panchromatic image + 6m multispectral image) Spatial coverage: Check the spatial coverage of the collection on a map available on the Third Party Missions Dissemination Service.
Data - Data Description
SPOT 4-5 Take5 ESA archive
At the end of SPOT-4 life, the Take5 experiment was launched and the satellite was moved to a lower orbit to obtain a 5 day repeat cycle, same repetition of Sentinel-2. Thanks to this orbit, from 1 February to 19 June 2013 a time series of images acquired every 5 days with constant angle and over 45 different sites were observed. In analogy to the previous SPOT-4 Take-5 experiment, also SPOT-5 was placed in a 5 days cycle orbit and 145 selected sites were acquired every 5 days under constant angles from 8 April to 31 August 2015. With a resolution of 10 m, the following processing levels are available: Level 1A: reflectance at the top of atmosphere (TOA), not orthorectified products Level 1C: data orthorectified reflectance at the top of atmosphere (TOA) Level 2A: data orthorectified surface reflectance after atmospheric correction (BOA), along with clouds mask and their shadow, and mask of water and snow. Spatial coverage: Check the spatial coverage of the collection on a map available on the Third Party Missions Dissemination Service.
Data - Data Description
SPOT 1-5 ESA archive
The ESA SPOT 1-5 collection is a dataset of SPOT 1 to 5 Panchromatic and Multispectral products that ESA collected over the years. The HRV(IR) sensor onboard SPOT 1-4 provides data at 10 m spatial resolution Panchromatic mode (-1 band) and 20 m (Multispectral mode -3 or 4 bands). The HRG sensor on board of SPOT-5 provides spatial resolution of the imagery to < 3 m in the panchromatic band and to 10 m in the multispectral mode (3 bands). The SWIR band imagery remains at 20 m. The dataset mainly focuses on European and African sites but some American, Asian and Greenland areas are also covered. Spatial coverage: Check the spatial coverage of the collection on a map available on the Third Party Missions Dissemination Service. The SPOT Collection
Data - Data Description
Image 2006 European coverage
The Image 2006 collection is a SPOT-4, SPOT-5 and ResourceSat-1 (also known as IRS-P6) cloud free coverage over 38 European countries in 2006 (from February 2005 to November 2007). The Level 1 data provided in this collection originate from the SPOT-4 HRVIR instrument (with 20 m spatial resolution), from SPOT-5 HRG (with 10 m spatial resolution resampled to 20 m) and IRS-P6 LISS III (with 23 m spatial resolution), each with four spectral bands. The swath is of about 60 km for the SPOT satellites and 140 km for the IRS-P6 satellite. In addition to the Level 1, the collection provides the same data geometrically corrected towards a European Map Projection with 25 m resolution. Spatial coverage: Check the spatial coverage of the collection on a map available on the Third Party Missions Dissemination Service.