Event - Conference

Living Planet Symposium 2022

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

News - Events and Proceedings

Data preservation takes centre stage at Living Planet Symposium

Against the backdrop of the famed Rhine River, world-class scientists and Earth observation data-users are gathered this week in the historical city of Bonn, at the Living Planet Symposium (LPS).

News - Thematic area articles

How ESA uses space data to explore deep Earth

As anthropogenic activities continue to unbalance our environment, scientists strive to fully understand the intricate interactions within Earth’s system.

News - Spotlight on EO community

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.

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.

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 immediate access (Open)

ERS PRARE Precise Orbit Product (ERS.ORB.POD/ERS.ORB/PRC)

The precise orbit results from a data reduction process in which all available tracking data (Single-Lens Reflex, radar altimeter crossovers, PRARE range and Doppler data) and most accurate correction, transformation and dynamical models are taken into account and in which high level numerical procedures are applied. These orbits are "optimal" achievable representations of the real orbital motion under the circumstances of tracking situation and the "state of the art" model situation. The precise orbit product for the ERS satellites are the satellite ephemeris (position and velocity vector) including time tag, given in a well-defined reference frame, together with the nominal satellite attitude information and a radial orbit correction. Several orbit solutions are currently distributed: A new set of ORB POD (Precise Orbit Determination - REAPER v2) computed with the most updated model standards for the complete ERS-1 and ERS-2 mission. A previous set of ORB POD (REAPER v1) data already available on the ESA dissemination site since 2014, covering the ERS-1 full mission and the ERS-2 mission up to July 2003. ORB PRC which is the original Precise Orbit dataset computed during the ERS mission operations for ERS-1 and ERS-2. In the new POD dataset (REAPER v2) for the ERS-1 and ERS-2 missions, two different orbit solutions are provided together with the combined solution to be used for processing of the radar altimeter measurements and the determination of geodetic/geophysical products: those computed by DEOS (Delft Institute of Earth Observation and Space Systems), and those generated by ESOC (European Space Operations Centre) using different software (GEODYN and NAPEOS respectively). Careful evaluation of the various solutions of REAPER v2 has shown that the DEOS solution for both ERS-1 and ERS-2 has the best performance and is recommended to be used as reference. See the ERS Orbit Validation Report. For the previous version of the POD data set (REAPER v1), with ERS-2 mission data only up to 2003, three different orbit solutions together with the combined solution are available. These precise orbits for ERS-1 and ERS-2 have been computed at DEOS, ESOC, and GFZ (Deutschen GeoForschungsZentrums) using different software and different altimeter databases. Combined solutions have been created using three individual solutions for each satellite. All orbits were derived using consistent models in the same LPOD2005 terrestrial reference frame. These new orbit solutions show notable improvement with respect to DGME04 orbits (Scharroo and Visser, 1998). Thus, RMS crossover differences of new orbits improved by 4-9 mm. Careful evaluation of the various solutions has shown that the combined solution for both ERS-1 and ERS-2 has the best performance. All POD orbit files (REAPER v1/v2) are available in SP3c format.

Tools - Analysis

GOCE User Toolbox

The GOCE User Toolbox is a compilation of tools for the utilisation and analysis of products from ESA's GOCE gravity mission.

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

Document - Proceedings

Dragon Programme Mid-Term Results

Proceedings of the 2005 Dragon Symposium held on 27 June - 1 July 2005 in Santorini, Greece.

News - Data Release news

Updated Precise Orbit data (POD) for the full ERS-1 and ERS-2 mission available

The Precise Orbit files (ERS.ORB.POD) for the entire ERS-1 and ERS-2 mission periods have been reprocessed with up-to-date standards.

Document - General Reference

The Nine Candidate Earth Explorer Missions - Earth Radiation Mission

This report for assessment addresses the Earth Radiation mission when it was selected with other nine Earth Explorer missions as a potential candidate for Phase A study.

Document - General Reference

The Nine Candidate Earth Explorer Missions - Atmospheric Dynamics MIssion

This report for assessment addresses the Atmospheric Dynamics mission when it was selected with other nine Earth Explorer missions as a potential candidate for Phase A study.