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.

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 - 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.

Document - Technical Note

ESRIN-ERS-Central-Facility-GAP-Files-Interface-Specification.pdf

This document specifies the interface through which files of data related to the Global Activity Plan (GAP), stored in the ESRIN ERS Central Facility (EECF), are transmitted to the external entities. The EECF systems involved in this data exchange are the Interface Subset (ISS), responsible for telecommunication aspects and preprocessing, and the Central User Service (CUS), where the GAP resides.

Document - Technical Note

ERS-National-and-Foreign-Stations-Operators-Working-Group.pdf

This document presents material from the ERS National and Foreign Ground Station Operators Working Group Meeting, which took place in Toulouse, France, from 14 to 15 December 1995.

Document - Proceedings

3rd-ERS-Symposium-Space-at-the-Service-of-our-Environment.pdf

Proceedings of the 3rd ERS Symposium 'Space at the Service of our Environment', held on 14-21 March 1997 in Florence, Italy. 3 Volumes.

Document - Proceedings

2nd-Conference-on-Academic-and-Industrial-Cooperation-in-Space-Research.pdf

This document describes the proceedings of the second conference on academic and industrial cooperation in space research, held in Graz, Austria, 15-17 November 2000.

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.

Document - General Reference

ERS-2 - 10 Years in Orbit

Document - User Guide

A short guide to the ERS-2 ATSR-1 and -2 instruments and their data products

Data - Data Description

ERS-1/2 ATSR ARC L2P/L3U [UPA-L2P_GHRSST/L3U_GHRSST]

The L2P product contains full resolution dual-view Sea Surface Temperature (SST) values. These SST use the ARC SST retrieval and cloud screening which differ from the methods used to produce the Gridded Surface Temperature (ATS_NR__2P) products. In addition to SST, the L2P products contain the ATSR Saharan Dust Index (ASDI) and the clear-sky probability estimated by the ARC cloud detection algorithm. The L2P processor also generates L3U products; these are the L2P products averaged onto a regular grid at 0.1 degree resolution (they are therefore similar to the AR / Meteo Envisat-format products). The L2P and L3U products are provided in NetCDF-4 format following GHRSST Data Specifications (GDS) v2. The L2P/L3U archive has been reprocessed with a new processor based upon the ARC SST; the changes are outlined in full in the L2P Reprocessing User Note.

Data - Data Description

ERS-1/2 ATSR ARC Level 3 products [AT1/AT2_AVG_3PAARC]

The recommended ATSR Level 3 products for Sea Surface Temperature (SST) applications are the ARC (ATSR Re-processing for Climate) Level 3 products. ARC reprocesses the ATSR multi-mission archive using new cloud detection and SST retrievals to produce a homogenous record of sea surface temperature. The main ARC objective is to reduce regional biases in retrieved SST to less than 0.1 K for all global oceans while creating a very homogenous record with a stability (lack of drift in the observing system and analysis) of 0.05 K per decade. ARC products are available for ATSR-1, ATSR-2 and AATSR. ARC products are provided in netCDF format and contain data for both the skin SST and the SST estimated for depths of 0.2 and 1.0 m (corresponding approximately to drifter and moored buoy depths). The AATSR estimated depth SSTs are adjusted to a local equatorial crossing time of 10:30 (approximately half an hour after observation), to provide continuity with ATSR-1 and ATSR-2 data. The ARC project was led by Chris Merchant (University of Reading, formerly of the University of Edinburgh) and funded by NERC and the UK Government.

Data - Data Description

ERS-1/2 ATSR Gridded Surface Temperature [AT1/AT2_NR__2P]

The Gridded Surface Temperature (GST) Product is the Level 2 full resolution geophysical product. The product contains gridded sea-surface temperature images using both nadir and dual view retrieval algorithms. The product includes pixel latitude/longitude positions, X/Y offset and the results of the cloud-clearing/land-flagging. It contains a single measurement data set the content of which is switchable, that is to say, the content of each pixel field will depend on the surface type. Specifically, the contents of the data fields will depend on the setting of the forward and nadir cloud flags and the land flag. 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.

Data - Data Description

ERS-1/2 ATSR Gridded Brightness Temperature/Reflectance [AT1/AT2_TOA_1P]

The Gridded Brightness Temperature/Reflectance (GBTR) product contains top of atmosphere (TOA) brightness temperature (BT) values for the infra-red channels and reflectance values for the visible channels. Values for each channel and for the nadir and forward views occupy separate measurement data sets. Additional MDS contain cloud and land/sea flags and confidence flags for each image pixel. 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.