- All Categories (1324)
- Data (4)
- News (9)
- Missions (3)
- Events (9)
- Tools (3)
- Activities (2)
- Documents (1294)
Document - Newsletter
Earth Online Newsletter - 08 March 2024
This issue of the Earth Online Newsletter covers a selection of the latest news and events from ESA.
News - Data Release news
FDR4ALT - ESA unveils new cutting-edge ERS/Envisat Altimeter and Microwave Radiometer Datasets
The European Space Agency (ESA) has developed a comprehensive suite of innovative Earth system data records as part of the Fundamental Data Records for Altimetry project - FDR4ALT.
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.
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 - 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 - 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.
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.
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.
Tools - Other
Forestry TEP
The Forestry Thematic Exploitation Platform (TEP) enables users in the forestry sector to access satellite data based processing services and tools for generating value-added forest information products.
Event - Conference
GRSG 2015 Conference
The 26th Annual GRSG Conference 'Challenges in Geological Remote Sensing' focused on a wide range of remote sensing applications, tools, latest developments and sensors.
News - Data Release news
ALOS PALSAR WB1 Collection now available online
Area Observation Mode (Burst Mode 1) collection, which will complete the existing ALOS PALSAR data offer.
Data - Fast Registration with approval (Restrained)
ALOS PALSAR products
The dataset contains all ESA acquisitions over the ADEN zone (Europe, Africa and the Middle East) plus some products received from JAXA over areas of interest around the world. Further information on ADEN zones can be found in this technical note. ALOS PALSAR products are available in following modes: Fine Beam Single polarisation (FBS), single polarisation (HH or VV), swath 40-70 km, resolution 10 m, temporal coverage from 02/05/2006 to 30/03/2011 Fine Beam Double polarisation (FBD), double polarisation (HH/HV or VV/VH), swath 40-70 km, resolution 10 m, temporal coverage from 02/05/2006 to 30/03/2011 Polarimetry mode (PLR), with four polarisations simultaneously: swath 30 km, resolution 30 m, temporal coverage from 26/08/2006 to 14/04/2011 ScanSAR Burst mode 1 (WB1), single polarisation: swath 250-350 km, resolution 100 m, temporal coverage from 12/06/2006 to 21/04/2011. Following processing levels are available: RAW (Level 1.0): Raw data generated by every downlink segment and every band. Divided into an equivalent size to one scene SLC (Level 1.1): Slant range single look complex product. Not available for WB1 GDH (Level 1.5): Ground range Detected, Normal resolution product GEC (Level 1.5): Geocoded product. The table summarises the ALOS PALSAR offer. Instrument mode Product type Processing level description JAXA processing level equivalent Fine Beam Single polarisation (HH or VV) FBS_RAW_0P Raw data generated by every downlink segment and every band. Divided into an equivalent size to one scene 1.0 FBS_GDH_1P Ground range Detected, Normal resolution product 1.5 FBS_GEC_1P Geocoded product 1.5 FBS_SLC_1P Slant range single look complex product 1.1 Fine Beam Double polarisation (HH/HV or VV/VH) FBD_RAW_0P Raw data generated by every downlink segment and every band. Divided into an equivalent size to one scene 1.0 FBD_GDH_1P Ground range Detected, Normal resolution product 1.5 FBD_GEC_1P Geocoded product 1.5 FBD_SLC_1P Slant range single look complex product 1.1 Polarimetry mode (4 polarisation) PLR_RAW_0P Raw data generated by every downlink segment and every band. Divided into an equivalent size to one scene 1.0 PLR_GDH_1P Ground range Detected, Normal resolution product 1.5 PLR_GEC_1P Geocoded product 1.5 PLR_SLC_1P Slant range single look complex product 1.1 ScanSAR Burst mode 1 (single polarisation) WB1_RAW_0P Raw data generated by every downlink segment and every band. Divided into an equivalent size to one scene 1.0 WB1_GDH_1P Ground range Detected, Normal resolution product 1.5 WB1_GEC_1P Geocoded product 1.5
Data - Fast Registration with immediate access (Open)
ERS-1/2 SCATTEROMETER Ocean Wind field and Sea Ice probability [ASPS20.H/ASPS20.N]
The ASPS Level 2 products contain, for each node: the radar backscattering sigma nought for the three beams of the instrument, the four aliased wind solutions (Rank 1-4 wind vector) and the de-aliased wind vector flag, the sea-ice probability and sea-ice flag, the YAW quality flag. The wind retrieval is performed with the CMOD5N geophysical model function derived by ECMWF to compute the neutral winds rather than 10 m winds. ASPS L2.0 High resolution products are provided with a spatial resolution of 25x25 km and a grid spacing of 12.5 km. ASPS L2.0 Nominal resolution products are provided with a spatial resolution of 50x50 km and a grid spacing of 25 km. One product covers one orbit from ascending node crossing. Please consult the Product Quality Readme file before using the ERS ASPS data.
Data - Fast Registration with immediate access (Open)
ERS-2 SCATTEROMETER Surface Soil Moisture Time Series and Orbit product in High and Nominal Resolution [SSM.H/N.TS - SSM.H/N]
Surface soil moisture records are derived from the backscatter coefficient measured by the Scatterometer on-board the European Remote Sensing satellite (ERS-2) using the Technische Universität (TU) Wien soil moisture retrieval algorithm called WARP (WAter Retrieval Package). In the WARP algorithm, the relative surface soil moisture estimates, given in degree of saturation Sd, range between 0% and 100% are derived by scaling the normalized backscatter between the lowest/highest backscatter values corresponding to the driest/wettest soil conditions. Surface Soil Moisture - Time Series product: The products generated are the surface soil moisture time series, where for each grid point defined in a DGG (Discrete Global Grid) is stored the time series of soil moisture and its noise, the surface state flag, the geolocation and the satellite parameters. The spatial resolution of the products is about 25 km x 25 km (high resolution) or 50 km x 50 km (nominal resolution) geo-referenced on the WARP grid. The location of the points can be viewed interactively with the tool DGG Point Locator. Surface Soil Moisture - Orbit product: In addition to WARP, a second software package, referred to as WARP orbit, was developed in response to the strong demand of soil moisture estimates in satellite orbit geometry. The Level 2 soil moisture orbit product contains a series of Level 1 data information, such as the backscatter, the incidence angle and the azimuth angle for each triplet together with the surface soil moisture and its noise, normalized backscatter at 40° incidence angle, parameters useful for soil moisture, the geolocation and the satellite parameters. The soil moisture orbit product is available in two spatial resolutions with different spatial sampling distances: Spatial sampling on a regular 12.5 km grid in orbit geometry with a spatial resolution of about 25 km x 25 km (High resolution) Spatial sampling on a regular 25 km grid in orbit geometry with a spatial resolution of about 50 km x 50 km (Nominal resolution). The spatial resolution is defined by the Hamming window function, which is used for re-sample of raw backscatter measurements to the orbit grid in the Level-1 ground processor. Please consult the Product Quality Readme file before using the ERS-2 Surface Soil Moisture data.
Data - Fast Registration with immediate access (Open)
ERS-1/2 SCATTEROMETER Nominal Resolution back-scattering measurements, Ocean Wind field [UWI]
The ERS data reprocessed with the ASPS facility is also available in the UWI format to maintain the compatibility with the FD (Fast Delivery) products. The ASPS UWI product is organised in frames of 500 x 500 km providing the radar backscattering sigma nought for the three beams of the instrument plus the wind speed and direction. The wind retrieval is performed with the CMOD5N geophysical model function derived by ECMWF to compute the neutral winds rather than 10m winds. ASPS UWI products are provided with a spatial resolution of 50 x 50 km and a grid spacing of 25 km. One product covers one orbit from ascending node crossing. Please consult the Product Quality Readme file before using the ERS ASPS data.