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  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • REAPER

    The REAPER (REprocessing of Altimeter Products for ERS) project covers both the ERS-1 and the ERS-2 altimetry missions. The project aims to support and maintain data quality.

  • New-Views-of-the-Earth-Applications-Achievements-of-ERS-1.pdf

    This document describes the Applications Achievements of ERS-1 and includes colour illustrations and images.

  • New-views-of-Earth-Scientific-achievements-of-ERS-1.pdf

    This document concentrates on the scientific achievements of the ERS-1 satellite. Its purpose is to present examples of high quality scientific work which clearly demonstrate that ERS-1 data are being used extensively within the international science community.

  • 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.

  • New ERS-2 GOME Level 1 v5.1 dataset available online

    A new GOME Level 1b dataset has been generated for the 16-year mission period bringing relevant quality improvements for the revised calibration approach, compensating aging and instrument degradation, and provide enhanced accessibility.

  • Living Planet Symposium 2022

    Learn about the 2022 edition of ESA's Living Planet Symposium.

  • 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.

  • Interviewing Mirko Albani

    ESA’s Heritage Space Programme Manager describes the goals of the programme, some of the challenges involved in preserving and improving 40 years of historical Earth observation data, and his passion for curating this long-term archive.

  • Highlights-of-the-ERS-Envisat-Symposium.pdf

    This article was published in the ESA Bulletin Nr. 105 and providesdetails on the achievements of the ESA's Earth ObservationProgramme following the Gothenburg's symposium.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Fundamental Data Record for Atmospheric Composition [ATMOS__L1B]

    The Fundamental Data Record (FDR) for Atmospheric Composition UVN v.1.0 dataset is a cross-instrument Level-1 product [ATMOS__L1B] generated in 2023 and resulting from the ESA FDR4ATMOS project. The FDR contains selected Earth Observation Level 1b parameters (irradiance/reflectance) from the nadir-looking measurements of the ERS-2 GOME and Envisat SCIAMACHY missions for the period ranging from 1995 to 2012. The data record offers harmonised cross-calibrated spectra with focus on spectral windows in the Ultraviolet-Visible-Near Infrared regions for the retrieval of critical atmospheric constituents like ozone (O3), sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) column densities, alongside cloud parameters. The FDR4ATMOS products should be regarded as experimental due to the innovative approach and the current use of a limited-sized test dataset to investigate the impact of harmonization on the Level 2 target species, specifically SO2, O3 and NO2. Presently, this analysis is being carried out within follow-on activities. The FDR4ATMOS V1 is currently being extended to include the MetOp GOME-2 series. Product format For many aspects, the FDR product has improved compared to the existing individual mission datasets: GOME solar irradiances are harmonised using a validated SCIAMACHY solar reference spectrum, solving the problem of the fast-changing etalon present in the original GOME Level 1b data; Reflectances for both GOME and SCIAMACHY are provided in the FDR product. GOME reflectances are harmonised to degradation-corrected SCIAMACHY values, using collocated data from the CEOS PIC sites; SCIAMACHY data are scaled to the lowest integration time within the spectral band using high-frequency PMD measurements from the same wavelength range. This simplifies the use of the SCIAMACHY spectra which were split in a complex cluster structure (with own integration time) in the original Level 1b data; The harmonization process applied mitigates the viewing angle dependency observed in the UV spectral region for GOME data; Uncertainties are provided. Each FDR product provides, within the same file, irradiance/reflectance data for UV-VIS-NIR special regions across all orbits on a single day, including therein information from the individual ERS-2 GOME and Envisat SCIAMACHY measurements. FDR has been generated in two formats: Level 1A and Level 1B targeting expert users and nominal applications respectively. The Level 1A [ATMOS__L1A] data include additional parameters such as harmonisation factors, PMD, and polarisation data extracted from the original mission Level 1 products. The ATMOS__L1A dataset is not part of the nominal dissemination to users. In case of specific requirements, please contact EOHelp. Please refer to the README file for essential guidance before using the data. All the new products are conveniently formatted in NetCDF. Free standard tools, such as Panoply, can be used to read NetCDF data. Panoply is sourced and updated by external entities. For further details, please consult our Terms and Conditions page. Uncertainty characterisation One of the main aspects of the project was the characterization of Level 1 uncertainties for both instruments, based on metrological best practices. The following documents are provided: General guidance on a metrological approach to Fundamental Data Records (FDR) Uncertainty Characterisation document Effect tables NetCDF files containing example uncertainty propagation analysis and spectral error correlation matrices for SCIAMACHY (Atlantic and Mauretania scene for 2003 and 2010) and GOME (Atlantic scene for 2003) reflectance_uncertainty_example_FDR4ATMOS_GOME.nc reflectance_uncertainty_example_FDR4ATMOS_SCIA.nc

  • FDR4ATMOS - New ESA FDR for Atmospheric composition dataset from ERS-2 GOME and Envisat SCIAMACHY

    In addition to releasing new datasets for Envisat SCIAMACHY, the European Space Agency (ESA) has advanced the earth observation capabilities by developing an experimental product under the ESA FDR4ATMOS project (Fundamental Data Records in the domain of satellite Atmospheric Composition).

  • 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.

  • ESA-ERS-1-Product-Specifications.pdf

    This document offers general Product Specifications on ERS-1 ESA products.