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News - Thematic area articles
Remote sensing data map impacts of natural hazards
As climate change increases the frequency and severity of natural disasters, remote sensing data can warn about extreme events and help tackle emergency situations.
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
Monitoring water on Earth's surface
ESA's Earth observation satellites are playing a leading role in furthering our understanding of how Earth's terrestrial hydrosphere is being influenced by humankind.
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.
Event - Training
EO Summer School 6
ESA's series of summer schools, on Monitoring of the Earth System, aims to promote the exploitation of Earth observation data.
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.
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 - Thematic area articles
Satellite data boost global understanding of land surface
Understanding our changing land surface is essential in the study of climate change. Satellites are used to monitor changes to the material that covers Earth’s surface, so-called land cover, such as vegetation and water.
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.
Event - Workshop
Space and the Arctic 2009 Workshop
Temperatures in the Arctic are rising at an unprecedented rate. This workshop looked at the needs and challenges of working and living in the rapidly changing Arctic and explore how space-based services might help to meet those needs.
Event - Training
4th Advanced Training Course in Land Remote Sensing
ESA organised the 4th Advanced Training Course in Land Remote Sensing which took place in Athens, Greece from 1 to 5 July 2013
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)
GOME Total Column Water Vapour Climate product
The GOME Total Column Water Vapour (TCWV) Climate product was generated by the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC), and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) within the ESA GOME-Evolution project. It is a Level 3 type product containing homogenized time-series of the global distribution of TCWV spanning over more than two decades (1995-2015). The data is provided as single netCDF file, containing monthly mean TCWV (units kg/m2) with 1-degree resolution, and is based on measurements from the satellite instruments ERS-2 GOME, Envisat SCIAMACHY, and MetOp-A GOME-2. Details are available in the paper by Beirle et al, 2018. Please also consult the GOME TCWV Product Quality Readme file before using the data.
Data - Fast Registration with immediate access (Open)
ERS-2 GOME Total Column Amount of Trace Gases Product
GOME Level 2 products were generated by DLR on behalf of the European Space Agency, and are the end result of the Level 1 to 2 reprocessing campaign of GOME Level 1 version 4 data with Level 2 GOME Data Processor (GDP) version 5.0 (HDF-5 format). The GOME Level 2 data product comprises the product header, total column densities of ozone and nitrogen dioxide and their associated errors, cloud properties and selected geo-location information, diagnostics from the Level 1 to 2 algorithms and a small amount of statistical information.
Data - Fast Registration with immediate access (Open)
ERS-2 GOME Spectral Product L1
GOME Level 1 products contain Earthshine radiance at the Top of the Atmosphere and solar irradiance spectra. They were generated by DLR on behalf of the European Space Agency with Level 1 GOME Data Processor (GDP-L1) starting from the Extracted GOME Calibration (EGOC) Level 0 data files. Originally raw detector signals (binary Analog to Digital Converted units) of the science measurements plus calibration constants were provided (dataset version 4 and lower), but following the end of the operational phase of the ERS-2 mission (2 July 2011), as part of ESA's post-operational algorithm improvement activities (Coldewey-Egbers et al., 2018), the GOME Level 1 data type was entirely revised and a dataset of fully calibrated and ready to use data was generated with GOME processor version 5.1. The version 5.1 data bring relevant quality improvements for the revised calibration approach, compensating aging and instrument degradation, and provide enhanced accessibility. The version 5.1 data are in NetCDF format and differ fundamentally from the previous GOME Level 1 data, having the Envisat proprietary format and basically containing Level 1a data where a dedicated extraction software tool had to be applied by end user to obtain spectrally and radiometrically calibrated radiances (including the correction for polarisation, leakage current and stray light). Such calibrations are now applied to the version 5.1 L1b data product in the standard processing. Users of GOME Level 1 products are strongly recommended to migrate to the latest reprocessed dataset. Please consult the GOME Product Quality Readme file before using the data.
Event - Conference
Living Planet Symposium 2019
ESA's Living Planet Symposia are amongst the biggest Earth observation conferences in the world. Scientists present their latest findings on Earth's environment and climate.
Event - Workshop
2nd Space for Hydrology Workshop
The workshop aimed to assess the current stage of knowledge and activities in space-based hydrological observations and to exchange knowledge and know how with hydrologists and researchers.
Event - Conference
3rd ERS Symposium
The ESA Directorate for Observation of the Earth and its Environment held the 3rd ERS Symposium, in 1997, where many of the results from the ERS-1 and ERS-2 missions were presented and discussed by the scientific community.