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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 - 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.
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.
News - Data Release news
SMOS sea ice thickness Arctic winter season 2021/2022 data available
SMOS Sea Ice thickness level 3 and level 4 data products are now available for the Arctic winter season 2021/2022.
Data - EO Sign In Authentication (Open)
SMOS L3 Sea Ice Thickness
The SMOS Level 3 Sea Ice Thickness product, in NetCDF format, provides daily estimations of SMOS-retrieved sea ice thickness (and its uncertainty) at the edge of the Arctic Ocean during the October-April (winter) season, from year 2010 onwards. The sea ice thickness is retrieved from the SMOS L1C product, up to a depth of approximately 0.5-1 m, depending on the ice temperature and salinity. Daily maps, projected on polar stereographic grid of 12.5 km, are generated by the Alfred Wegener Institut (AWI). This product is complementary with sea ice thickness measurements from ESA's CryoSat and Copernicus Sentinel-3 missions.
Data - EO Sign In Authentication (Open)
SMOS - CryoSat L4 Sea Ice Thickness
The SMOS-CryoSat merged Sea Ice Thickness Level 4 product, in NetCDF format, is based on estimates from both the MIRAS and the SIRAL instruments with a significant reduction in the relative uncertainty for the thickness of the thin ice. A weekly averaged preliminary product is generated every day by the Alfred Wegener Institut (AWI) by merging the weekly CryoSat Sea Ice Thickness product and the daily SMOS Sea Ice Thickness retrieval. A final product is provided with a latency of about 3-4 weeks using a different global sea ice concentration product and a reprocessed CryoSat product. All grids are projected onto the 25 km EASE2 Grid based on a polar aspect spherical Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection. The grid dimension is 5400 x 5400 km, equal to a 432 x 432 grid centered on the geographic pole. Coverage is limited to the October-April (winter) period for the Northern Hemisphere, due to the melting season, from year 2010 onwards.
News - Infographics
Showcasing success stories from ESA's Heritage Missions
Find out how ESA's Heritage Space Programme data continue to help, even decades after they finished operations, in our latest infographic.
Event - Workshop
SEASAR 2012
The European Space Agency and the Norwegian Space Centre jointly organised the fourth SAR oceanography workshop, 'SEASAR 2012', entitled 'Advances in SAR Oceanography'.
Event - Workshop
SEASAR 2008
The "Advances in SAR Oceanography from Envisat and ERS missions" was a thematic workshop on SAR remote sensing techniques for oceanography.
Data - EO Sign In Authentication (Open)
Sea Ice Thematic Data Product [ALT_TDP_SI]
This is the Sea Ice Thematic Data Product (TDP) V1 resulting from the ESA FDR4ALT project and containing the sea ice related geophysical parameters, along with associated uncertainties: snow depth, radar and sea-ice freeboard, sea ice thickness and concentration. The collection covers data for the ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat missions, and bases on Level 1 data coming from previous reprocessing (ERS REAPER and the Envisat V3.0) but taking into account the improvements made at Level 0/Level 1 in the frame of FDR4ALT (ALT FDR). The Sea Ice TDP provides data from the northern or southern hemisphere in two files corresponding to the Arctic and Antarctic regions respectively for the winter periods only, i.e., October to June for the Arctic, and May to November for the Antarctic. For many aspects, the Sea Ice TDP is very innovative: First time series of sea-ice thickness estimates for ERS Homogeneous calibration, allowing the first Arctic radar freeboard time series from ERS-1 (1991) to CryoSat-2 (2021) Uncertainties estimated along-track with a bottom-up approach based on dominant sources ERS pulse blurring error corrected using literature procedure [Peacock, 2004] The FDR4ALT products are available in NetCDF format. Free standard tools for reading NetCDF data can be used. Information for expert altimetry users is also available in a dedicated NetCDF group within the products. Please consult the FDR4ALT Product User Guide before using the data. The FDR4ALT datasets represent the new reference data for the ERS/Envisat altimetry missions, superseding any previous mission data. Users are strongly encouraged to make use of these datasets for optimal results.
News - Thematic area articles
Satellites reveal changes to Earth’s icy zones
ESA’s Earth observation activities are helping scientists investigate the influence of climate change on widespread ice-losses across the planet.
News - Thematic area articles
Satellites investigate Earth’s terrestrial hydrosphere
ESA’s Earth observation satellites are playing a leading role in furthering our understanding of how Earth’s water cycle is being influenced by humankind.
News - Thematic area articles
Satellite data central to ocean monitoring
Over 95% of Earth’s water is found in our oceans, and yet sadly, oceans are under stress from climate change and pollution. Monitoring our oceans is vital for Earth’s survival and satellites are the primary means of long-term and independent observation of our vast ocean bodies and their associated coastal zones.
Tools - Other
Polar TEP
The Polar Thematic Exploitation Platform (TEP) enables access, processing, uploading, visualisation, manipulation and comparison of data over the polar regions.
News - General News
Overachieving SMOS mission primed for continued success
ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity mission (SMOS) was the second Earth Explorer launched in 2009. Over 13 years on, having already vastly exceeded its predicted lifetime and initial objectives, the mission has been further extended until at least the end of 2025.
News - Data Release news
New version of the SMOS-CryoSat level 4 sea ice thickness product is now available
The new version 205 of the merged SMOS-CryoSat level 4 sea ice thickness product is now available on the SMOS dissemination service
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.
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.
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.
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.