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News - Thematic area articles
Space data support Earth’s ecosystems
ESA’s Earth observation (EO) missions are making a critical contribution to monitoring transformations in our planet’s ecosystems, helping track changes in the vegetation, soil, and ocean that affect these systems.
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 - Thematic area articles
Remote sensing data underpin research on soil
Environmental data disseminated by ESA’s Earth observation programmes provide knowledge about the stresses on Earth’s soils – aiding many applications such as crop management, drought and flood forecasting, and ecosystem protection.
News - General News
Pioneering science missions: Summarising ESA’s Earth Explorers
Designed for research purposes, ESA's Earth Explorer missions are dedicated to monitoring parts of Earth’s system. Learn more about the Earth Explorers in this video.
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 5
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
Space helps monitor Earth’s changing biosphere
Earth’s biosphere is continually changing. Through its pioneering Earth observation missions, ESA is making critical contributions to monitor these changes and their impacts on Earth’s water and carbon cycles.
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.
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.
Activity - General activities
EO Science for Society
ESA's Earth Observation Science for Society programme aims to promote scientific exploitation of satellite data, forges new scientific discoveries and pioneers new services, stimulating downstream industrial and economic growth.
Data - EO Sign In Authentication (Open)
JERS-1 OPS (Optical Sensor) Very Near Infrared Radiometer (VNIR) System Corrected Products level 1
The JERS-1 Optical System (OPS) is composed of a Very Near Infrared Radiometer (VNIR) and a Short Wave Infrared Radiometer (SWIR). The instrument has 8 observable spectral bands from visible to short wave infrared. Data acquired by ESA ground stations The JERS-1 OPS products are available in GeoTIFF format. These products are available only for the VNIR sensor. All four bands are corrected. The correction consists in a vertical and horizontal destriping, the radiometry values are expanded from the range [0.63] to the range [0.255]. No geometrical correction is applied on level 1. The pixel size of approximately 18 x 24.2 metres for raw data is newly dimensioned to 18 x 18 metres for System Corrected data using a cubic convolution algorithm. Disclaimer: Cloud coverage for JERS OPS products has not been computed using an algorithm. The cloud cover assignment was performed manually by operators at the acquisition stations. Due to missing attitude information, the Nadir looking band (band 3) and the corresponding forward looking band (band 4) are not well coregistered, resulting in some accuracy limitations. The quality control was not performed systematically for each frame. A subset of the entire JERS Optical dataset was selected and manually checked. As a result of this, users may occasionally encounter issues with some of the individual products. Spatial coverage: Check the spatial coverage of the collection on a map available on the Third Party Missions Dissemination Service.
Data - EO Sign In Authentication (Open)
JERS-1 SAR Level 1 Precision Image
The JSA_PRI_1P product is comparable to the ESA PRI/IMP images generated for Envisat ASAR and ERS SAR instruments. It is a ground range projected detected image in zero-Doppler SAR coordinates, with a 12.5 metre pixel spacing. It has four overlapping looks in Doppler covering a total bandwidth of 1000Hz, with each look covering a 300Hz bandwidth. Sidelobe reduction is applied to achieve a nominal PSLR of less than -21dB. The image is not geocoded, and terrain distortion (foreshortening and layover) has not been removed. Data acquired by ESA ground stations. Spatial coverage: Check the spatial coverage of the collection on a map available on the Third Party Missions Dissemination Service.
Data - EO Sign In Authentication (Open)
JERS-1 SAR Level 1 Single Look Complex Image
The JSA_SLC_1P product is comparable to the ESA SLC/IMS images generated for Envisat ASAR and ERS SAR instruments. It is a slant-range projected complex image in zero-Doppler SAR coordinates. The data is sampled in natural units of time in range and along track, with the range pixel spacing corresponding to the reciprocal of the platform ADC rate and the along track spacing to the reciprocal of the PRF. Data is processed to an unweighted Doppler bandwidth of 1000Hz, without sidelobe reduction. The product is suitable for interferometric, calibration and quality analysis applications. Data acquired by ESA ground stations. Spatial coverage: Check the spatial coverage of the collection on a map available on the Third Party Missions Dissemination Service.
Event - Meeting
World Ocean Circulation User Consultation Meeting 2019
The World Ocean Circulation User Consultation Meeting took place in 2019 with the aim to prepare a roadmap for new initiatives on ocean circulation research and applications.
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.
Mission - Heritage Missions
JERS-1
The overall objectives of JERS-1 (Japanese Earth Resources Satellite) were the generation of global data sets with SAR and OPS sensors aimed at surveying resources, establishing an integrated Earth observation system
Event - Training
Advanced Training Course in Land Remote Sensing 2012
The 2012 advanced training course focused on land remote sensing theory and applications.
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.
Document - General Reference
The-Changing-Earth-New-Scientific-Challenges-for-ESAs-Living-Planet-Programme.pdf
This article is extracted from ESA Bulletin Nr. 129.
Document - General Reference
The Science and Research Elements of ESA Living Planet Programme
This document presents the plans for the Earth Explorer element of the European Space Agency's 'Living Planet' Programme for Earth Observation.