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 - 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.

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.

Event - Training

2nd Advanced Training Course on Ocean Remote Sensing 2009

This advanced training course focused on ocean remote sensing theory and 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 - 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 - Proceedings

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

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.

Data - Fast Registration with approval (Restrained)

WorldView ESA archive

The WorldView ESA archive is composed of products acquired by WorldView-1, -2, -3 and -4 satellites and requested by ESA supported projects over their areas of interest around the world Panchromatic, 4-Bands, 8-Bands and SWIR products are part of the offer, with the resolution at Nadir depicted in the table. Band Combination Mission GSD Resolution at Nadir GSD Resolution (20° off nadir) Panchromatic WV-1 50 cm 55 cm WV-2 46 cm 52 cm WV-3 31 cm 34 cm WV-4 31 cm 34 cm 4-Bands WV-2 1.84 m 2.4 m WV-3 1.24 m 1.38 m WV-4 1.24 m 1.38 m 8-Bands WV-2 1.84 m 2.4 m WV-3 1.24 m 1.38 m SWIR WV-3 3.70 m 4.10 m The 4-Bands includes various options such as Multispectral (separate channel for Blue, Green, Red, NIR1), Pan-sharpened (Blue, Green, Red, NIR1), Bundle (separate bands for PAN, Blue, Green, Red, NIR1), Natural Colour (pan-sharpened Blue, Green, Red), Coloured Infrared (pan-sharpened Green, Red, NIR). The 8-Bands being an option from Multispectral (COASTAL, Blue, Green, Yellow, Red, Red EDGE, NIR1, NIR2) and Bundle (PAN, COASTAL, Blue, Green, Yellow, Red, Red EDGE, NIR1, NIR2). The processing levels are: Standard (2A): normalised for topographic relief View Ready Standard: ready for orthorectification (RPB files embedded) View Ready Stereo: collected in-track for stereo viewing and manipulation (not available for SWIR) Map Scale (Ortho) 1:12,000 Orthorectified: additional processing unnecessary Spatial coverage: Check the spatial coverage of the collection on a map available on the Third Party Missions Dissemination Service. The following table summarises the offered product types EO-SIP Product Type Band Combination Processing Level Missions WV6_PAN_2A Panchromatic (PAN) Standard/View Ready Standard WorldView-1 and 4 WV6_PAN_OR Panchromatic (PAN) View Ready Stereo WorldView-1 and 4 WV6_PAN_MP Panchromatic (PAN) Map Scale Ortho WorldView-1 and 4 WV1_PAN__2A Panchromatic (PAN) Standard/View Ready Standard WorldView-2 and 3 WV1_PAN__OR Panchromatic (PAN) View Ready Stereo WorldView-2 and 3 WV1_PAN__MP Panchromatic (PAN) Map Scale Ortho WorldView-2 and 3 WV1_4B__2A 4-Band (4B) Standard/View Ready Standard WorldView-2, 3 and 4 WV1_4B__OR 4-Band (4B) View Ready Stereo WorldView-2, 3 and 4 WV1_4B__MP 4-Band (4B) Map Scale Ortho WorldView-2, 3 and 4 WV1_8B_2A 8-Band (8B) Standard/View Ready Standard WorldView-2 and 3 WV1_8B_OR 8-Band (8B) View Ready Stereo WorldView-2 and 3 WV1_8B_MP 8-Band (8B) Map Scale Ortho WorldView-2 and 3 WV1_S8B__2A SWIR Standard/View Ready Standard WorldView-3 WV1_S8B__MP SWIR Map Scale Ortho WorldView-3 As per ESA policy, very high-resolution imagery of conflict areas cannot be provided.

Document - General Reference

ERS-2 - 10 Years in Orbit

Document - User Guide

A short guide to the ERS-2 ATSR-1 and -2 instruments and their data products

Data - Fast Registration with approval (Restrained)

WorldView-1 full archive and tasking

WorldView-1 high resolution optical products are available as part of the Maxar Standard Satellite Imagery products from the QuickBird, WorldView-1/-2/-3/-4, and GeoEye-1 satellites. All details about the data provision, data access conditions and quota assignment procedure are described into the Terms of Applicability available in Resources section. In particular, WorldView-1 offers archive and tasking panchromatic products up to 0.50 m GSD resolution. Band Combination Data Processing Level Resolution Panchromatic Standard(2A)/View Ready STANDARD (OR2A) 50 cm, 30 cm HD View Ready Stereo 50 cm Map-Ready (Ortho) 1:12.000 Orthorectified 50 cm, 30 cm HD Native 50 cm resolution products are processed with MAXAR HD Technology to generate the 30 cm HD products: the initial special resolution (GSD) is unchanged but the HD technique increases the number of pixels and improves the visual clarity achieving aesthetically refined imagery with precise edges and well reconstructed details. As per ESA policy, very high-resolution imagery of conflict areas cannot be provided.

Data - EO Sign In Authentication (Open)

ERS-1/2 SAR IM Precision L1 [SAR_IMP_1P]

The SAR Precision product is a multi-look (speckle-reduced), ground range image acquired in Image Mode. This product type is most applicable to users interested in remote sensing applications, but is also suitable for calibration purposes. The products are calibrated and corrected for the SAR antenna pattern and range-spreading loss. Radar backscatter can be derived from the products for geophysical modelling, but no correction is applied for terrain-induced radiometric effects. The images are not geocoded, and terrain distortion (foreshortening and layover) has not been removed. The numbering sequence relates to the satellite position and therefore differs between Ascending and Descending scenes. Product characteristics: Pixel size: 12.5 m (range - across track) x 12.5 m (azimuth - along track) Scene area: 100 km (range) x at least 102.5 km (azimuth) Scene size: 8000 pixels range x at least 8200 lines (azimuth) Pixel depth: 16 bits unsigned integer Total product volume: 125 MB Projection: Ground-range Number of looks: 3.

Data - EO Sign In Authentication (Open)

ERS-1/2 SAR IM Single Look Complex L1 [SAR_IMS_1P]

The SAR SLC product is a single look complex acquired in Image Mode. It is a digital image, with slant range and phase preserved, generated from raw SAR data using up-to-date auxiliary parameters. The products are intended for use in SAR quality assessment, calibration and interferometric applications. A minimum number of corrections and interpolations are performed on the data. Absolute calibration parameters (when available) are provided in the product annotation. Product characteristics: Pixel size: 8 m (range - across track) x 4 m (azimuth - along track – varying slightly depending on acquisition Pulse Repetition Frequency) Scene area: 100 km (range) x at least 102.5 km (azimuth) Scene size: 5000 samples (range) x at least 30000 lines (azimuth) Pixel depth: 32 bits signed integer (16 bits I, 16 bits Q) Total product volume: 575 MB Projection: Slant range- Number of looks: 1.