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News - General News
Go-to guide to Third Party Mission data offering
ESA’s latest Third Party Missions Data Access Guide has been published, providing technical details and information on available data collections for all current or past Third Party Missions.
News - Thematic area articles
Space data support Earth’s ecosystems
ESA’s Earth observation (EO) missions are making a critical contribution to monitoring transformations in our planet’s ecosystems, helping track changes in the vegetation, soil, and ocean that affect these systems.
News - Thematic area articles
How to use space data to probe humankind’s ancient past
Data disseminated by ESA’s Third Party Missions (TPM) programme are enabling archaeological investigations that could help to unravel the mysteries of past societies and cultures.
News - Success Stories
Commercial and international data for fire monitoring
As climate change sparks a surge in the frequency and intensity of wildfires, satellite data disseminated through ESA’s Third Party Missions (TPM) programme are helping scientists to track and investigate these potentially damaging natural events.
News - Events and Proceedings
Scientists to showcase value of Earth observation data at EGU
Remote sensing scientists are getting ready to present innovative and exciting applications of satellite data at the European Geosciences Union general assembly which will take place from 24 to 28 April in Vienna, Austria.
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 - Thematic area articles
How satellite data help to shape society
Data from ESA’s Earth observation archives are improving understanding of the interactions between human activities and the environment, helping to power green economic development and boosting prosperity in Europe and beyond.
News - Events and Proceedings
Very High Resolution data to take centre stage
In the last few years, European New Space providers have helped strengthen the offering of very high resolution remote sensing data products—a designated workshop this November aims to focus on the latest developments in this arena.
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 - Data Release news
Two new ESA archive collections have been opened for PlanetScope and SkySat
PlanetScope ESA archive and SkySat ESA archive collections are available through ESA’s Third Party Missions programme via Fast Approval Registration.
Data - Fast Registration with approval (Restrained)
SkySat ESA archive
The SkySat ESA archive collection consists of SkySat products requested by ESA supported projects over their areas of interest around the world and that ESA collected over the years. The dataset regularly grows as ESA collects new products. Two different product types are offered, Ground Sampling Distance at nadir up to 65 cm for panchromatic and up to 0.8m for multi-spectral. EO-SIP Product Type Product Description Content SSC_DEF_SC Basic and Ortho scene Level 1B 4-bands Analytic /DN Basic scene Level 1B 4-bands Panchromatic /DN Basic scene Level 1A 1-band Panchromatic DN Pre Sup resolution Basic scene Level 3B 3-bands Visual Ortho Scene Level 3B 4-bands Pansharpened Multispectral Ortho Scene Level 3B 4-bands Analytic/DN/SR Ortho Scene Level 3B 1-band Panchromatic /DN Ortho Scene SSC_DEF_CO Ortho Collect Visual 3-band Pansharpened Image Multispectral 4-band Pansharpened Image Multispectral 4-band Analytic/DN/SR Image (B, G, R, N) 1-band Panchromatic Image The Basic Scene product is uncalibrated, not radiometrically corrected for atmosphere or for any geometric distortions inherent in the imaging process: Analytic - unorthorectified, radiometrically corrected, multispectral BGRN Analytic DN - unorthorectified, multispectral BGRN Panchromatic - unorthorectified, radiometrically corrected, panchromatic (PAN) Panchromatic DN - unorthorectified, panchromatic (PAN) L1A Panchromatic DN - unorthorectified, pre-super resolution, panchromatic (PAN) The Ortho Scene product is sensor and geometrically corrected, and is projected to a cartographic map projection: Visual - orthorectified, pansharpened, and colour-corrected (using a colour curve) 3-band RGB Imagery Pansharpened Multispectral - orthorectified, pansharpened 4-band BGRN Imagery Analytic SR - orthorectified, multispectral BGRN. Atmospherically corrected Surface Reflectance product. Analytic - orthorectified, multispectral BGRN. Radiometric corrections applied to correct for any sensor artifacts and transformation to top-of-atmosphere radiance. Analytic DN - orthorectified, multispectral BGRN, uncalibrated digital number imagery product Radiometric corrections applied to correct for any sensor artifacts Panchromatic - orthorectified, radiometrically correct, panchromatic (PAN) Panchromatic DN - orthorectified, panchromatic (PAN), uncalibrated digital number imagery product The Ortho Collect product is created by composing SkySat Ortho Scenes along an imaging strip. The product may contain artifacts resulting from the composing process, particular offsets in areas of stitched source scenes. Spatial coverage: Check the spatial coverage of the collection on a map available on the Third Party Missions Dissemination Service. As per ESA policy, very high-resolution imagery of conflict areas cannot be provided.
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 - Infographics
PlanetScope and SkySat - The high-resolution nanosatellite constellation
Find out more about the PlanetScope and SkySat missions in our new infographic.
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 - General News
Introducing the newest Third Party Mission: ICEYE
ESA's Earth Observation Programme Board has approved the integration of the ICEYE mission, as a Third Party Mission (TPM) within the framework of the ESA Earthnet programme.
Data - Project Proposal (Restrained)
ICEYE full archive and tasking
ICEYE full archive and new tasking products are available in Strip, Spot, SLEA (Spot Extended Area), Scan, and Dwell modes: Strip instrument mode: the ground swath is illuminated with a continuous sequence of pulses while the antenna beam is fixed in its orientation. This results in a long image strip parallel to the flight direction: the transmitted pulse bandwidth is adjusted to always achieve a ground range resolution of 3 m Spot instrument mode: the radar beam is steered to illuminate a fixed point to increase the illumination time, resulting in an extended Synthetic aperture length, which improves the azimuth resolution. Spot mode uses a 300 MHz pulse bandwidth and provides a slant plane image with a resolution of 0.5 m (range) by 0.25 m (azimuth); when translated into the ground, the products has 1 m resolution covering an area of 5 km x 5 km. Due to multi-looking, speckle noise is significantly reduced As an evolution of Spot mode, SLEA (Spot Extended Area) products are available with the same resolution of Spot data but a scene size of 15 km x 15 km Scan Instrument mode: the phased array antenna is used to create multiple beams in the elevation direction which allows to acquire a large area (100km x 100km) with resolution better than 15m. To achieve the finest image quality of its Scan image, ICEYE employs a TOPSAR technique, which brings major benefits over the quality of the images obtained with conventional SCANSAR imaging. With the 2-dimensional electronic beam steering, TOPSAR ensures the maximum radar power distribution in the scene, providing uniform image quality. Dwell mode: with the satellite staring at the same location for up to 25 seconds, Dwell mode is a very long Spot mode SAR collection. This yields a very fine azimuth resolution and highly-reduced speckle. The 25 second collection time allows the acquired image stack to be reconstructed as a video to give insight into the movement of objects. Two different processing levels can be requested: Single Look Complex (SLC): Single Look Complex (SLC) Level 1a products consist of focused SAR data geo-referenced using orbit and attitude data from the satellite and the scenes are stored in the satellite's native image acquisition geometry which is the slant-range-by-azimuth imaging plane and with zero-Doppler SAR coordinates. The pixels are spaced equidistant in azimuth and in slant range. The products include a single look in each dimension using the full transmit signal bandwidth and consist of complex magnitude value samples preserving both amplitude and phase information. No radiometric artefacts induced by spatial resampling or geocoding. The product is provided in Hierarchical Data Format (HDF5) plus a xml file with selected metadata Ground Range Detected (GRD): Ground Range Detected (GRD) Level 1b products consist of focused SAR data that has been detected, multi-looked and projected to ground range using an Earth ellipsoid model. The image coordinates are oriented along the flight direction and along the ground range. Pixel values represent detected magnitude, the phase information is lost. The resulting product has approximately square spatial resolution pixels and square pixel spacing with reduced speckle due to the multi-look processing at the cost of worse spatial resolution. No image rotation to a map coordinate system has been performed and interpolation artefacts are thus avoided. The product is provided in GeoTiff plus a xml file with selected metadata. Strip Spot SLEA Scan Dwell Ground range resolution (GRD) 3 m 1 m 1 m 15 m 1 Ground azimuth resolution (GRD) 3 m 1 m 1 m 15 m 1 Slant range resolution (SLC) 0.5 m - 2.5 m 0.5 m 0.5 m 0.5 m Slant azimuth resolution (SLC) 3 m 0.25 m 1 m 0.05 m Scene size (W x L) 30 x 50 km2 5 x 5 km2 15 x 15 km2 100 x 100 km2 5 x 5 km2 Incident angle 15 - 30° 20 - 35° 20 - 35° 21 - 29° 20 - 35° Polarisation VV All details about the data provision, data access conditions and quota assignment procedure are described in the ICEYE Terms of Applicability. In addition, ICEYE has released a public catalogue that contains nearly 18,000 thumbnails under a creative common license of radar images acquired with ICEYE's SAR satellite constellation all around the world from 2019 until October 2020. Access to the catalogue requires registration. As per ESA policy, very high-resolution data over conflict areas cannot be provided.
News - General News
ICEYE data available for assessment
The SAR user community is invited to participate to the call to assess the suitability of the ICEYE constellation, for science and EO-based applications.
Data - Project Proposal (Restrained)
SkySat Full Archive and New Tasking
The SkySat Level 2B Basic Scene, Level 3B Ortho Scene and Level 3B Consolidated full archive and new tasking products are available as part of Planet imagery offer. The SkySat Basic Scene product is uncalibrated and in a raw digital number format, not corrected for any geometric distortions inherent in the imaging process. Rational Polynomial Coefficients (RPCs) is provided to enable orthorectification by the user. Basic Scene Product Components and Format Processing Levels Analytic (unorthorectified, radiometrically corrected, multispectral BGRN) Analytic DN (unorthorectified, multispectral BGRN) Panchromatic DN (unorthorectified, panchromatic) Product Components and Format Image File (GeoTIFF format) Metadata File (JSON format) Rational Polynomial Coefficients (Text File) UDM File (GeoTIFF format) Image Configuration 4-band Analytic DN Image (Blue, Green, Red, NIR) 1-band Panchromatic DN Image (Pan) Ground Sampling Distance 3.7 m at nadir (average at reference altitude 475 km) Ground Sampling Distance (nadir) Panchromatic 0.86m and Multispectral 1.0m for SkySat-1&2 Panchromatic 0.65m and Multispectral 0.8m for SkySat-3 to 13 (0.72 m and 1.0m for data acquired before 30/06/2020) Accuracy <50 m RMSE The SkySat Ortho Scene is sensor- and geometrically-corrected (by using DEMs with a post spacing of between 30 and 90 meters) and is projected to a cartographic map projection; the accuracy of the product will vary from region to region based on available GCPs. Different products are available: The SkySat Visual Ortho Scene product is orthorectified, pansharpened, and color-corrected (using a color curve) 3-band RGB Imagery The SkySat Pansharpened Multispectral Scene product is orthorectified, pansharpened 4-band BGRN Imagery The SkySat Analytic DN Ortho Scene product is orthorectified, multispectral BGRN, uncalibrated, digital number imagery product. The product has been processed to remove distortions caused by terrain; It eliminates the perspective effect on the ground (not on buildings), restoring the geometry of a vertical shot. Transformation to at-sensor radiance is not included The SkySat Panchromatic DN Ortho Scene product is orthorectified, panchromatic, uncalibrated, digital number imagery product. It has a finer GSD than the Analytic Product. Transformation to at-sensor radiance is not included. The SkySat Analytic Ortho Scene are calibrated multispectral imagery products with radiometric corrections applied to correct for any sensor artifacts and transformation to top-of-atmosphere radiance. The SkySat Consolidated Product are Ortho Collect product created by composing ~60 SkySat Ortho Scenes (Visual, Pansharpened Multispectral, Analytic DN, Panchromatic DN) along an imaging strip into segments Ortho Scene Product Components and Format Visual Ortho Pansharpened Multispectral Analytic DN Ortho Panchromatic DN Ortho Analytic Ortho Product Components and Format Image File (GeoTIFF format) Metadata File (JSON format) Rational Polynomial Coefficients (Text File) UDM File (GeoTIFF format) Image File (GeoTIFF) Metadata File (JSON format) Rational Polynomial Coefficients (Text File) UDM File (GeoTIFF format) Image File (GeoTIFF format) Metadata File (JSON format) Rational Polynomial Coefficients (Text File) UDM File (GeoTIFF format) Image File (GeoTIFF format) Metadata File (JSON format) Rational Polynomial Coefficients (Text File) UDM File (GeoTIFF format) Image File (GeoTIFF format) Metadata File (JSON format) Rational Polynomial Coefficients (Text File) UDM File (GeoTIFF format) Image Configuration 3-band Pansharpened Image (PS Red, PS Green, PS Blue) 4-band Pansharpened Image (PS Blue, PS Green, PS Red, PS NIR) 4-band Analytic DN Image (B, G, R, N) 1-band Panchromatic Image 4-band Analytic Image (B, G, R, N) Ground Sampling Distance 50 cm 50 cm 50 cm 50 cm 50 cm Projection UTM WGS84 UTM WGS84 UTM WGS84 UTM WGS84 UTM WGS84 Accuracy <10 m RMSE <10 m RMSE <10 m RMSE <10 m RMSE radiometric accuracy: +/- 5% Relative accuracy at < 10 degrees off-nadir angle As per ESA policy, very high-resolution imagery of conflict areas cannot be provided.
Activity - Quality
EDAP
The ESA Earthnet Data Assessment Pilot (EDAP) project will perform assessments for various missions to ensure the delivered data is fit for purpose.