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

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.

Event - Conference

Atmospheric Science Conference 2006

The 2006 conference was dedicated the theme atmosphere to provide scientists and data users with the opportunity to present first-hand and up-to-date results from their ongoing research activities ESA Mission instruments.

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 - 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.

Data - Fast Registration with approval (Restrained)

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 - External Data (Restrained)

Aura OMI complete NASA dataset

The OMI observations provide the following capabilities and features: A mapping of ozone columns at 13 km x 24 km and profiles at 13 km x 48 km A measurement of key air quality components: NO2, SO2, BrO, HCHO, and aerosol The ability to distinguish between aerosol types, such as smoke, dust and sulfates The ability to measure aerosol absorption capacity in terms of aerosol absorption optical depth or single scattering albedo A measurement of cloud pressure and coverage A mapping of the global distribution and trends in UV-B radiation. The OMI data are available in the following four levels: Level 0, Level 1B, Level 2, and Level 3. Level 0 products are raw sensor counts. Level 0 data are packaged into two-hour "chunks" of observations in the life of the spacecraft (and the OMI aboard it) irrespective of orbital boundaries. They contain orbital swath data. Level 1B processing takes Level 0 data and calibrates, geo-locates and packages the data into orbits. They contain orbital swath data. Level 2 products contain orbital swath data. Level 3 products contain global data that are composited over time (daily or monthly) or over space for small equal angle (latitude longitude) grids covering the whole globe.

Data - Fast Registration with approval (Restrained)

ERS-1/2 ATSR Gridded Brightness Temperature/Reflectance [AT1/AT2_TOA_1P]

The Gridded Brightness Temperature/Reflectance (GBTR) product contains top of atmosphere (TOA) brightness temperature (BT) values for the infra-red channels and reflectance values for the visible channels. Values for each channel and for the nadir and forward views occupy separate measurement data sets. Additional MDS contain cloud and land/sea flags and confidence flags for each image pixel. 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)

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.

Mission - Heritage Missions

ERS

The ERS programme was composed of two missions, ERS-1 and ERS-2, which together observed the Earth for 20 years, from 1991 to 2011.

Tools - Processing

Atmospheric Toolbox

The Atmospheric Toolbox (previously known as BEAT) is a collection of executable tools and API, developed to facilitate the utilisation, viewing and processing of e.g. GOMOS, MIPAS, SCIAMACHY and GOME data.

Document - General Reference

2013 Dragon 3 Brochure

The 2013 Dragon 3 cooperation brochure presents the activities undertaken since the formal start of programme in June 2012.

Document - Proceedings

2004 Envisat and ERS Symposium

The 2004 Envisat and ERS Symposium was held in Salzburg - Austria from 6 to 10 September 2004. The 2004 Envisat and ERS Symposium provided a forum for investigators to present results of ongoing research project activities and assess the development of applications and services.

Document - Proceedings

1st MSG RAO Workshop

Proceedings of the workshop organised by ESA and EUMETSAT held in CNR of Bologna, Italy in May 2000.

Document - Proceedings

Earth Observation for Land-Atmosphere Interaction Science

Proceedings of the Topical Conference Earth Observation for Land-Atmosphere Interaction Science held from 3-5 November 2010 at the premises of ESA-ESRIN in Frascati (Rome) Italy.

Document - Proceedings

ERS-Envisat Symposium