- All Categories (723)
- Data (17)
- News (8)
- Missions (2)
- Events (8)
- Tools (2)
- Activities (2)
- Campaigns (7)
- Documents (677)
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.
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.
Document - Technical Note
ESRIN-ERS-Central-Facility-GAP-Files-Interface-Specification.pdf
This document specifies the interface through which files of data related to the Global Activity Plan (GAP), stored in the ESRIN ERS Central Facility (EECF), are transmitted to the external entities. The EECF systems involved in this data exchange are the Interface Subset (ISS), responsible for telecommunication aspects and preprocessing, and the Central User Service (CUS), where the GAP resides.
Document - Technical Note
ERS-National-and-Foreign-Stations-Operators-Working-Group.pdf
This document presents material from the ERS National and Foreign Ground Station Operators Working Group Meeting, which took place in Toulouse, France, from 14 to 15 December 1995.
Document - Product Specifications
wind-scatterometer-processing-requirements-from-sigma-nought-triplets-to-dealiased-wind.pdf
This document defines the ground processing algorithms for the ERS-1 AMI wind mode (Scatterometer) from the sigma nought triplets to the wind speed and direction, including the wind retrieval and the ambiguity removal processing.
Document - Publication - Paper
Calibration strategy for ERS scatterometer data reprocessing.pdf
Paper included in the Proceedings of SPIE Remote Sensing of the Ocean and Sea Ice 2005 - vol.5977- Brugge (Belgium): Calibration strategy for ERS scatterometer data reprocessing. WS Cal/Val.
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 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-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.
Data - Data Service Request (Restrained)
ERS-1/2 SAR IM L0 [SAR_IM__0P]
This SAR Level 0 product is acquired in Image Mode. The products consist of the SAR telemetry data and are supplied as standard scenes. It also contains all the required auxiliary data necessary for data processing. The product serves two main purposes: For testing ERS SAR processors independently from the HDDR system For users interested in full SAR data processing. Product characteristics: Scene area: 100 km (range - across track) x full segment length (azimuth - along track) Scene size: 5616 samples (range) x full segment length (azimuth) Pixel depth: 10 bits signed integer (5 bits I, 5 bits Q) Projection: Slant range.
