- All Categories (59)
- Data (7)
- News (8)
- Missions (1)
- Events (4)
- Tools (2)
- Activities (3)
- Documents (34)
News - General News
ESA's improved Earth system data records: what is in store for the future?
Fundamental Data Records (FDRs) are instrumental in advancing our understanding of Earth systems and for addressing societal challenges effectively. These long-term records contain uncertainty-quantified, calibrated and geo-located multi-instrument/multi-platform satellite sensor data spanning several decades to support climate-related applications.
News - Success Stories
Trailblazing ERS-2 mission enables climate change applications
As ESA’s ERS-2 satellite approaches Earth’s atmosphere for reentry, it’s time to reflect on the mission’s great achievements in powering climate-related applications.
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 - 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 - 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.
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 approval (Restrained)
ERS-1/2 ATSR Averaged Surface Temperature [AT1/AT2_AR__2P]
The Averaged Surface Temperature Product (AST) contains averaged geophysical data at two different resolutions, and with respect to two different averaging schemes: measurement data sets at resolutions of 0.5 by 0.5 degrees and 10 by 10 arcmin with respect to a latitude/longitude grid; other data sets contain data averaged over equal area cells of 50 by 50 km and 17 by 17 km aligned with the satellite ground track. Both top-of-atmosphere and surface data sets are provided. The surface temperature data sets provide, for sea cells, nadir and dual view sea surface temperatures, and for land cells, land surface temperature (currently 11 micron BT) and NDVI. Cloud data is also included. No ADS are included in the AST product; auxiliary data is contained within the MDS. The data sets of the AST product are arranged by surface type and resolution. 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 Meteo Product [AT1/AT2_MET_2P]
The data is a fast delivery Meteo product designed for use by meteorological offices, and contains averaged BT and SST at 10 arc minute resolution. The single MDS comprises the fields of MDS#3 (SST record, 10 arc min cell) of the AST product, with the addition of Average Brightness Temperature (ABT) fields (BT/TOA sea record, 10 arc min cell) to make it more self-contained. 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 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 - Fast Registration with approval (Restrained)
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.
Data - External Data (Restrained)
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 - Fast Registration with approval (Restrained)
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.
Mission - Heritage Missions
ERS
The ERS programme was composed of two missions, ERS-1 and ERS-2, which together observed the Earth for 20 years, from 1991 to 2011.
Activity - Quality
SCIRoCCo
The SCIRoCCo project is an interdisciplinary cooperation of scatterometry experts aimed at promoting the continuing exploitation of ESA's unique 20 years' worth of ERS Scatterometer data.