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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 - Infographics
Showcasing success stories from ESA's Heritage Missions
Find out how ESA's Heritage Space Programme data continue to help, even decades after they finished operations, in our latest infographic.
Document - Newsletter
Earth Online Newsletter - 08 March 2024
This issue of the Earth Online Newsletter covers a selection of the latest news and events from ESA.
News - Data Release news
FDR4ALT - ESA unveils new cutting-edge ERS/Envisat Altimeter and Microwave Radiometer Datasets
The European Space Agency (ESA) has developed a comprehensive suite of innovative Earth system data records as part of the Fundamental Data Records for Altimetry project - FDR4ALT.
Data - EO Sign In Authentication (Open)
Sea Ice Thematic Data Product [ALT_TDP_SI]
This is the Sea Ice Thematic Data Product (TDP) V1 resulting from the ESA FDR4ALT project and containing the sea ice related geophysical parameters, along with associated uncertainties: snow depth, radar and sea-ice freeboard, sea ice thickness and concentration. The collection covers data for the ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat missions, and bases on Level 1 data coming from previous reprocessing (ERS REAPER and the Envisat V3.0) but taking into account the improvements made at Level 0/Level 1 in the frame of FDR4ALT (ALT FDR). The Sea Ice TDP provides data from the northern or southern hemisphere in two files corresponding to the Arctic and Antarctic regions respectively for the winter periods only, i.e., October to June for the Arctic, and May to November for the Antarctic. For many aspects, the Sea Ice TDP is very innovative: First time series of sea-ice thickness estimates for ERS Homogeneous calibration, allowing the first Arctic radar freeboard time series from ERS-1 (1991) to CryoSat-2 (2021) Uncertainties estimated along-track with a bottom-up approach based on dominant sources ERS pulse blurring error corrected using literature procedure [Peacock, 2004] The FDR4ALT products are available in NetCDF format. Free standard tools for reading NetCDF data can be used. Information for expert altimetry users is also available in a dedicated NetCDF group within the products. Please consult the FDR4ALT Product User Guide before using the data. The FDR4ALT datasets represent the new reference data for the ERS/Envisat altimetry missions, superseding any previous mission data. Users are strongly encouraged to make use of these datasets for optimal results.
Data - EO Sign In Authentication (Open)
Ocean and Coastal Topography Thematic Data Product [ALT_TDP_OC]
This is the Ocean and Coastal Topography Thematic Data Product (TDP) V1 resulting from the ESA FDR4ALT project and containing improved sea surface height anomaly data records both at 1 Hz and 20 Hz resolution to address climate and/or coastal areas studies. The collection covers data for the ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat missions. Note that a dedicated processing to coastal zones has been applied for coastal distances below 200 km. Compared to existing datasets, the Ocean and Coastal Topography TDP demonstrates notable improvements in several aspects: Up-to-date orbit and geophysical corrections applied Adaptive retracker for Envisat The FDR4ALT products are available in NetCDF format. Free standard tools for reading NetCDF data can be used. Information for expert altimetry users is also available in a dedicated NetCDF group within the products. Please consult the FDR4ALT Product User Guide before using the data. The FDR4ALT datasets represent the new reference data for the ERS/Envisat altimetry missions, superseding any previous mission data. Users are strongly encouraged to make use of these datasets for optimal results.
Data - EO Sign In Authentication (Open)
Ocean Waves Thematic Data Product [ALT_TDP_WA]
This is the Ocean Waves Thematic Data Product (TDP) V1 resulting from the ESA FDR4ALT project and containing Significant Wave Height estimates for the ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat missions. Compared to existing datasets, the Ocean Waves TDP demonstrates notable improvements in several aspects: Great improvements for Envisat due to noise reduction from Adaptive retracker and High-Frequency Adjustment (HFA) All variables are given at 5 Hz The FDR4ALT products are available in NetCDF format. Free standard tools for reading NetCDF data can be used. Information for expert altimetry users is also available in a dedicated NetCDF group within the products. Please consult the FDR4ALT Product User Guide before using the data. The FDR4ALT datasets represent the new reference data for the ERS/Envisat altimetry missions, superseding any previous mission data. Users are strongly encouraged to make use of these datasets for optimal results.
News - General News
Go-to guide to Third Party Mission data offering
ESA’s latest Third Party Missions Data Access Guide has been published, providing technical details and information on available data collections for all current or past Third Party Missions.
News - Success Stories
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.
News - Thematic area articles
Space data support Earth’s ecosystems
ESA’s Earth observation (EO) missions are making a critical contribution to monitoring transformations in our planet’s ecosystems, helping track changes in the vegetation, soil, and ocean that affect these systems.
News - Success Stories
TPM data help advance plastic litter detection from space
Several innovative ESA Discovery element projects exploring remote sensing of plastic marine litter lean on commercial satellite data disseminated via the Agency’s Third Party Mission programme.
News - Thematic area articles
Monitoring water on Earth's surface
ESA's Earth observation satellites are playing a leading role in furthering our understanding of how Earth's terrestrial hydrosphere is being influenced by humankind.
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
Satellites investigate Earth’s terrestrial hydrosphere
ESA’s Earth observation satellites are playing a leading role in furthering our understanding of how Earth’s water cycle is being influenced by humankind.
Activity - General activities
EO Summer Schools
ESA's series of summer schools, on Monitoring of the Earth System, aims to promote the exploitation of Earth observation (EO) data.
News - Data Release news
ICEYE ESA archive collection now available to users
ICEYE ESA archive collection is now available worldwide through ESA’s Third Party Missions programme. The ESA archive collections consist of products requested by ESA-supported projects worldwide, and, therefore, the products are scattered and dispersed over the territory in different time windows. The datasets regularly grow as ESA collects new products over the years.
Data - EO Sign In Authentication (Open)
ICEYE ESA archive
The ICEYE ESA archive collection consists of ICEYE Level 1 products requested by ESA supported projects over their areas of interest around the world. The dataset regularly grows as ESA collects new products over the years. Three different modes are available: Spot: With a slant resolution of 50 cm in range by 25 cm in azimuth that translated into the ground generates a ground resolution of 1 m over an area of 5 km x 5 km. Due to multi-looking, speckle noise is significantly reduced Strip: The ground swath is 30 x 50 km2 and the ground range resolution is 3 m Scan: A large area (100 km x 100 km is acquired with ground resolution of 15 m). Two different processing levels: Single Look Complex (SLC): Level 1A geo-referenced product and stored in the satellite's native image acquisition geometry (the slant imaging plane) Ground Range Detected (GRD): Level 1B product; detected, multi-looked and projected to ground range using an Earth ellipsoid model; the image coordinates are oriented along the flight direction and along the ground range; no image rotation to a map coordinate system is performed, interpolation artefacts not introduced. The following table defines the offered product types: EO-SIP Product Type Mode Processing level XN_SM__SLC Strip Single Look Complex (SLC) - Level 1A XN_SM__GRD Strip Ground Range Detected (GRD) - Level 1B XN_SL__SLC Spot Single Look Complex (SLC) - Level 1A XN_SL__GRD Spot Ground Range Detected (GRD) - Level 1B XN_SR__GRD Scan Ground Range Detected (GRD) - Level 1B As per ESA policy, very high-resolution data over conflict areas cannot be provided.
News - Events and Proceedings
Very High Resolution data to take centre stage
In the last few years, European New Space providers have helped strengthen the offering of very high resolution remote sensing data products—a designated workshop this November aims to focus on the latest developments in this arena.
News - Thematic area articles
Satellites reveal changes to Earth’s icy zones
ESA’s Earth observation activities are helping scientists investigate the influence of climate change on widespread ice-losses across the planet.
Event - Training
EO Summer School 8
ESA's series of summer schools, on Monitoring of the Earth System, aims to promote the exploitation of Earth observation data.