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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.
News - Success Stories
PROBA-V data improve surface albedo products in Africa
As ESA’s PROBA-V satellite marks its 10-year launch milestone, data tasked during the mission’s lifetime are still being used to assess changes in land cover.
Event - Meeting
PROBA-V QWG meeting 16
The Proba-V QWG meeting 16 – Hybrid Event: VITO (Mol) and Microsoft Teams held on 22-23 March 2023
News - Data Release news
PROBA-V ‘Collection 2’ - Reprocessed Dataset available
The improved PROBA-V data (Collection 2) has been released. Data is available via the PROBA-V MEP and Terrascope platforms so users can freely exploit the data using Virtual machines, Jupyter Notebooks, and the new viewing application.
News - General News
Overachieving SMOS mission primed for continued success
ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity mission (SMOS) was the second Earth Explorer launched in 2009. Over 13 years on, having already vastly exceeded its predicted lifetime and initial objectives, the mission has been further extended until at least the end of 2025.
Data - Data Description
Landsat RBV
This dataset contains Landsat 3 Return Beam Vidicon (RBV) products, acquired by ESA by the Fucino ground station over its visibility mask. The data (673 scenes) are the result of the digitalization of the original 70 millimetre (mm) black and white film rolls. The RBV instrument was mounted on board the Landsat 1 to 3 satellites between 1972 and 1983, with 80 metre resolution. Three independent co-aligned television cameras, one for each spectral band (band 1: blue-green, band 2: yellow-red, band 3: NIR), constituted this instrument. The RBV system was redesigned for Landsat 3 to use two cameras operating in one broad spectral band (green to near-infrared; 0.505–0.750 µm), mounted side-by-side, with panchromatic spectral response and higher spatial resolution than on Landsat 1 and Landsat 2. Each of the cameras produced a swath of about 90 km (for a total swath of 180 km), with a spatial resolution of 40 m.
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 - Infographics
Measuring photosynthetic fluorescence - ESA's FLEX mission
Learn about ESA's upcoming FLEX mission, which is dedicated to gathering information about photosynthetic activity to shed light on the functioning of Earth's vegetation, in our latest infographic.
Data - Data Description
Landsat 7 ETM + European and Mediterranean Countries Cloud Free Collection
This dataset contains the cloud-free products from Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper collection acquired over Europe, North Africa and middle East; for each scene only one product is selected, with the minimal cloud coverage. The Landsat 7 ETM+ scenes typically cover 185 x 170 km. A standard full scene is nominally centred on the intersection between a Path and Row (the actual image centre can vary by up to 100m). The data are system corrected.
Data - Data Description
Landsat 5 TM European and Mediterranean Countries Cloud Free Collection
This dataset contains the cloud-free products from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper collection acquired over Europe, North Africa and middle East; for each scene only one product is selected, with the minimal cloud coverage. The acquired Landsat TM scene covers approximately 183 x 172.8 km. A standard full scene is nominally centred on the intersection between a path and row (the actual image centre can vary by up to 100 m). The data are system corrected.
News - Success Stories
Remote sensing scientists raise alarm for African savannah
Researchers have used high resolution WorldView-3 imagery to map vegetation cover in the Greater Maasai Mara savannah, a global hotspot for biodiversity in Kenya.
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.
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.
Event - Meeting
PROBA-V QWG meeting 15
The Proba-V QWG meeting 15 - Hybrid Event: University of Valencia and Microsoft Teams held on 09-10 June 2022
News - Infographics
PROBA-1 - From technology demonstration to long-term Earth observation
Learn about ESA's PROBA-1 (Project for On-Board Autonomy) mission in our new infographic.
News - Events and Proceedings
Data preservation takes centre stage at Living Planet Symposium
Against the backdrop of the famed Rhine River, world-class scientists and Earth observation data-users are gathered this week in the historical city of Bonn, at the Living Planet Symposium (LPS).
News - Data Release news
PlanetScope and Skysat data available through ESA’s Third Party Missions Programme
Through ESA’s Third Party Missions Programme, researchers, scientists and companies from around the world can apply to access Planet’s high-frequency, high-resolution satellite data for non-commercial use.
News - Success Stories
Predicting crop yield using Planet data
The world’s population continues to grow, while the climate crisis is raising Earth’s temperatures and increasing the likelihood of extreme weather events – all of which affect food security.
News - Success Stories
How Envisat helped to shape global understanding of Earth’s systems
Twenty years have passed since a ground-breaking European spacecraft designed to deliver unprecedented insight into the planet’s changing environment was lofted into orbit.
Data - Data Description
GEOSAT-1 and 2 ESA archive
GEOSAT-1 and 2 dataset is composed of products acquired by the GEOSAT-1 and GEOSAT-2 Spanish satellites. The dataset regularly grows as ESA collects new products. GEOSAT-1 standard products offered are: SL6_22P: SLIM6, 22m spatial resolution, from bank P SL6_22S: SLIM6, 22m spatial resolution, from bank S SL6_22T: SLIM6, 22m spatial resolution, 2 banks merged together GEOSAT-1 products are available in two different processing levels: Level 1R: All 3 Spectral channels combined into a band-registered image using L0R data. Geopositioned product based on rigorous sensor model. Coefficients derived from internal and external satellite orientation parameters coming from telemetry and appended to metadata. Level 1T: data Orthorectified to sub-pixel accuracy (10 meters RMS error approximately) with respect to Landsat ETM+ reference data and hole-filled seamless SRTM DEM data V3, 2006 (90 m). The use of the GCPs, it is not automatic, as it is done manually, which gives greater precision. (GCPs by human operators). GEOSAT-2 standard products offered are: Pan-sharpened (HRA_PSH four-band image, HRA_PS3 321 Natural Colours, HRA_PS4 432 False Colours): a four-band image, resulting from adding the information of each multispectral band to the panchromatic band. The fusion does not preserve all spectral features of the multispectral bands, so it should not be used for radiometric purposes. Panchromatic (HRA_PAN): a single-band image coming from the panchromatic sensor.HRA_MS4: Multispectral (HRA_MS4): a four-band image coming for the multispectral sensor, with band co-registration. Bundle (HRA_PM4): a five-band image contains the panchromatic and multispectral products packaged together, with band co-registration. Stereo Pair (HRA_STP): The image products obtained from two acquisitions of the same target performed from different viewpoints in the same pass by using the agility feature of the platform. It can be provided as a pair of pan sharpened or panchromatic images. GEOSAT-2 products are available in two different processing levels: Level 1B: A calibrated and radiometrically corrected product, but not resampled. The product includes the Rational Polynomial Coefficients (RPC), the metadata with gain and bias values for each band, needed to convert the digital numbers into radiances at pixel level, and information about geographic projection (EPGS), corners geolocation, etc. Level 1C: A calibrated and radiometrically corrected product, manually orthorectified and resampled to a map grid. The geometric information is contained in the GeoTIFF tags. Spatial coverage: Check the spatial coverage of the collection on a map available on the Third Party Missions Dissemination Service.