News - Operational News

Change of access to FTP-S for ERS and Envisat atmospheric and low-rate data

As of 13 December 2023, access to a series of ERS and Envisat atmospheric and low rate data collections changed from simple FTP to FTP-S.

News - Operational News

GOSAT – TANSO-FTS observations unavailability

Due to an inclination control manoeuvre of the JAXA GOSAT-1 satellite, the TANSO-FTS sensor observations have been suspended.

News - Success Stories

Satellites track the health of the ozone layer

ESA’s Earth observation activities are contributing to international efforts to monitor and preserve the layer of stratospheric ozone that blankets the planet.

News - Thematic area articles

Space data help to unravel the complexities of Earth’s atmosphere

As the impacts of the climate crisis intensify, scientists are using ESA’s Earth observation archives to investigate atmospheric processes and their influences on the planet’s changing environment.

News - Spotlight on EO community

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.

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.

Tools - Visualisation

EVDC Orbit Prediction Tool

The EVDC Orbit Prediction and Overpass Tool generates and visualises satellite's overpasses.

News - Operational News

GOSAT data dissemination schedule until 6 May 2020

The GOSAT product generation and distribution is currently impacted by changes at the JAXA Tsukuba Space Center.

Data - Fast Registration with immediate access (Open)

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 - Fast Registration with immediate access (Open)

GOSAT TANSO FTS and CAI full archive and new products

The TANSO-FTS instrument on-board GOSAT satellite features high optical throughput, fine spectral resolution, and a wide spectral coverage (from VIS to TIR in four bands). The reflective radiative energy is covered by the VIS and SWIR (Shortwave Infrared) ranges, while the emissive portion of radiation from Earth's surface and the atmosphere is covered by the MWIR (Midwave Infrared) and TIR (Thermal Infrared) ranges. These spectra include the absorption lines of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). The TANSO-CAI instrument on-board GOSAT satellite is a radiometer in the spectral ranges of ultraviolet (UV), visible, and SWIR to correct cloud and aerosol interference. The imager has continuous spatial coverage, a wider field of view, and higher spatial resolution than the FTS in order to detect the aerosol spatial distribution and cloud coverage. Using the multispectral bands, the spectral characteristics of the aerosol scattering can be retrieved together with optical thickness. In addition, the UV-band range observations provide the aerosol data over land. With the FTS spectra, imager data, and the retrieval algorithm to remove cloud and aerosol contamination, the column density of the gases can be the column density of the gases can be retrieved with an accuracy of 1%. The full ESA archive and newly acquired/systematically processed GOSAT FTS and CAI products are available in the following processing levels: FTS Observation mode 1 L1B, day (FTS_OB1D_1) FTS Observation mode 1 L1B, night (FTS_OB1N_1) FTS Special Observation L1B, day (FTS_SPOD_1) FTS Special Observation L1B, night (FTS_SPON_1) FTS L2 CO2 profile, TIR (FTS_P01T_2) FTS L2 CH4 profile, TIR (FTS_P02T_2) FTS L2 CH4 column amount, SWIR (FTS_C02S_2) FTS L2 CO2 column amount, SWIR (FTS_C01S_2) FTS L2 H2O column amount, SWIR (FTS_C03S_2) FTS L3 global CO2 distribution, SWIR (FTS_C01S_3) FTS L3 global CH4 distribution, SWIR (FTS_C02S_3) FTS L4A global CO2 flux, annual in text format (FTS_F01M4A) FTS L4A global CO2 flux, annual in netCDF format (FTS_F03M4A) FTS L4A global CO2 distribution (FTS_P01M4B) FTS L4A global CH4 flux, annual in text format (FTS_F02M4A) FTS L4A global CH4 flux, annual in netCDF format (FTS_F04M4A) FTS L4A global CH4 distribution (FTS_P02M4B) CAI L1B data (CAI_TRB0_1) CAI L1B+ (CAI_TRBP_1) CAI L2 cloud flag (CAI_CLDM_2) CAI L3 global reflect. distrib. clear sky (CAI_TRCF_3) CAI L3 global radiance distrib. all pixels (CAI_TRCL_3) CAI L3 global NDVI (CAI_NDVI_3). All products are made available as soon as processed and received from JAXA. To satisfy NearRealTime requirements, ESA also provides access to the FTS L1X products, which are the NRT version of FTS L1B products. The main difference between L1X and L1B is that L1X does not include CAM data, best-estimate pointing-location, and target point classification, but most of all the L1X products are available on the ESA server between 2 and 5 hours after acquisition. The L1X products remains on the FTP server for 5 days, the time for the corresponding L1B to be available. A document describing the differences between L1X and L1B products is listed in the available resources. For more details on products, please refer to below product specifications.

Mission - Third Party Missions

GOSAT Series

The GOSAT series is composed of two environment-monitoring satellites developed by JAXA dedicated to the observation of greenhouse gases.

Activity - Fiducial Reference Measurements

FRM4GHG: Reference Measurements for Ground-Based FTIR Greenhouse Gas Observation

Fiducial Reference Measurements for Ground-Based Infrared Greenhouse Gas Observations (FRM4GHG) is a European Space Agency (ESA) funded project.

Document - Product Document

NIES GOSAT Product Format Descriptions

News - Data Release news

Release of new GOSAT FTS L1 products

New release of GOSAT FTS L1 products v220.220 - GOSAT data can be retrieved from the dissemination server at ftp://gosat-ds.eo.esa.int

News - Data Release news

Updated Precise Orbit data (POD) for the full ERS-1 and ERS-2 mission available

The Precise Orbit files (ERS.ORB.POD) for the entire ERS-1 and ERS-2 mission periods have been reprocessed with up-to-date standards.

Mission - Third Party Missions

GOSAT-1

GOSAT-1 is a Japanese environment-monitoring satellite

Document - Product Document

GOSAT-Level-1-Product-Format-Description-Document.pdf

This document describes TANSO-FTS Level 1 products produced with GOSAT data processing system.

Document - Product Handbook

ERS-Altimeter-and-Orbit-Global-Products-Manual.pdf

This manual covers ERS Altimeter and Orbit products.

Document - Proceedings

ERS-Envisat-symposium-proceedings.pdf

This document contains the proceedings of the ERS-Envisat Symposium, which took place in 2000.