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  • Data (8)
  • News (6)
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  • Events (6)
  • Tools (2)
  • Activities (2)
  • Documents (434)
  • Document - Newsletter

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    Earth Online Newsletter - 09 February 2024

    This issue of the Earth Online Newsletter covers a selection of the latest news and events from ESA.

  • News - Thematic area articles

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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.

  • News - Spotlight on EO community

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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 - Proceedings

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    3rd-ERS-Symposium-Space-at-the-Service-of-our-Environment.pdf

    Proceedings of the 3rd ERS Symposium 'Space at the Service of our Environment', held on 14-21 March 1997 in Florence, Italy. 3 Volumes.

  • Document - Proceedings

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    2nd-Conference-on-Academic-and-Industrial-Cooperation-in-Space-Research.pdf

    This document describes the proceedings of the second conference on academic and industrial cooperation in space research, held in Graz, Austria, 15-17 November 2000.

  • Document - General Reference

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    ERS-2 - 10 Years in Orbit

  • Data - Fast Registration with immediate access (Open)

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    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)

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    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 approval (Restrained)

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    ERS-1/2 ATSR Averaged Surface Temperature [AT1/AT2_AR__2P]

    The Averaged Surface Temperature Product (AST) contains averaged geophysical data at two different resolutions, and with respect to two different averaging schemes: measurement data sets at resolutions of 0.5 by 0.5 degrees and 10 by 10 arcmin with respect to a latitude/longitude grid; other data sets contain data averaged over equal area cells of 50 by 50 km and 17 by 17 km aligned with the satellite ground track. Both top-of-atmosphere and surface data sets are provided. The surface temperature data sets provide, for sea cells, nadir and dual view sea surface temperatures, and for land cells, land surface temperature (currently 11 micron BT) and NDVI. Cloud data is also included. No ADS are included in the AST product; auxiliary data is contained within the MDS. The data sets of the AST product are arranged by surface type and resolution. The 3rd reprocessing of ATSR data was performed in 2013; the processing updates that have been put in place and the scientific improvements are outlined in full in the User Summary Note for the Third ERS ATSR Reprocessing.

  • Data - Fast Registration with approval (Restrained)

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    ERS-1/2 ATSR Gridded Surface Temperature [AT1/AT2_NR__2P]

    The Gridded Surface Temperature (GST) Product is the Level 2 full resolution geophysical product. The product contains gridded sea-surface temperature images using both nadir and dual view retrieval algorithms. The product includes pixel latitude/longitude positions, X/Y offset and the results of the cloud-clearing/land-flagging. It contains a single measurement data set the content of which is switchable, that is to say, the content of each pixel field will depend on the surface type. Specifically, the contents of the data fields will depend on the setting of the forward and nadir cloud flags and the land flag. The 3rd reprocessing of ATSR data was performed in 2013; the processing updates that have been put in place and the scientific improvements are outlined in full in the User Summary Note for the Third ERS ATSR Reprocessing.

  • Data - External Data (Restrained)

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    ERS-1/2 ATSR ARC Level 3 products [AT1/AT2_AVG_3PAARC]

    The recommended ATSR Level 3 products for Sea Surface Temperature (SST) applications are the ARC (ATSR Re-processing for Climate) Level 3 products. ARC reprocesses the ATSR multi-mission archive using new cloud detection and SST retrievals to produce a homogenous record of sea surface temperature. The main ARC objective is to reduce regional biases in retrieved SST to less than 0.1 K for all global oceans while creating a very homogenous record with a stability (lack of drift in the observing system and analysis) of 0.05 K per decade. ARC products are available for ATSR-1, ATSR-2 and AATSR. ARC products are provided in netCDF format and contain data for both the skin SST and the SST estimated for depths of 0.2 and 1.0 m (corresponding approximately to drifter and moored buoy depths). The AATSR estimated depth SSTs are adjusted to a local equatorial crossing time of 10:30 (approximately half an hour after observation), to provide continuity with ATSR-1 and ATSR-2 data. The ARC project was led by Chris Merchant (University of Reading, formerly of the University of Edinburgh) and funded by NERC and the UK Government.