- All Categories (36)
- Data (16)
- News (11)
- Missions (2)
- Events (5)
- Documents (2)
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.
News - Operational News
Temporary interruption to Envisat AATSR dissemination service
A planned downtime will affect the access to the ftp dissemination server for the Envisat AATSR data during the period 13-15 February 2024.
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
Commercial and international data for fire monitoring
As climate change sparks a surge in the frequency and intensity of wildfires, satellite data disseminated through ESA’s Third Party Missions (TPM) programme are helping scientists to track and investigate these potentially damaging natural events.
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 - Success Stories
Remote sensing scientists raise alarm for African savannah
Researchers have used high resolution WorldView-3 imagery to map vegetation cover in the Greater Maasai Mara savannah, a global hotspot for biodiversity in Kenya.
Event - Training
EO Summer School 5
ESA's series of summer schools, on Monitoring of the Earth System, aims to promote the exploitation of Earth observation data.
News - Thematic area articles
Space helps monitor Earth’s changing biosphere
Earth’s biosphere is continually changing. Through its pioneering Earth observation missions, ESA is making critical contributions to monitor these changes and their impacts on Earth’s water and carbon cycles.
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 - Success Stories
How Envisat helped to shape global understanding of Earth’s systems
Twenty years have passed since a ground-breaking European spacecraft designed to deliver unprecedented insight into the planet’s changing environment was lofted into orbit.
News - Thematic area articles
Satellite data boost global understanding of land surface
Understanding our changing land surface is essential in the study of climate change. Satellites are used to monitor changes to the material that covers Earth’s surface, so-called land cover, such as vegetation and water.
Event - Workshop
Envisat Validation Workshop 2002
The workshop covered various aspects of validation of the Envisat instruments.
Data - Project Proposal (Restrained)
WorldView-4 Full Archive
WorldView-4 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-4 offers archive panchromatic products up to 0.31 m GSD resolution, and 4-Bands Multispectral products up to 1.24 m GSD resolution. Band Combination Data Processing Level Resolution Panchromatic and 4-bands Standard (2A) / View Ready Standard (OR2A) 15 cm HD, 30 cm HD, 30 cm, 40 cm, 50/60 cm View Ready stereo 30 cm, 40 cm, 50/60 cm Map Ready (Ortho) 1:12.000 Orthorectified 15 cm HD, 30 cm HD, 30 cm, 40 cm, 50/60 cm The options for 4-Bands are the following: 4-Band Multispectral (BLUE, GREEN, RED, NIR1) 4-Band Pan-sharpened (BLUE, GREEN, RED, NIR1) 4-Band Bundle (PAN, BLUE, GREEN, RED, NIR1) 3-Bands Natural Colour (pan-sharpened BLUE, GREEN, RED) 3-Band Colored Infrared (pan-sharpened GREEN, RED, NIR1) Native 30 cm and 50/60 cm resolution products are processed with MAXAR HD Technology to generate respectively the 15 cm HD and 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.
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.
Data - Data Description
Envisat ASAR AP Co- and Cross-polar L0 [ASA_APC/APH/APV_0P]
The ASAR Alternating Polarization Mode Level 0 (Co-polar and Cross-polar H and V) products contain time-ordered Annotated Instrument Source Packets (AISPs) corresponding to one of the three possible polarisation combinations: HH & HV, VV & VH and HH & VV, respectively. The echo samples in the AISPs have been compressed to 4 bits/sample using FBAQ. This is a high-rate, narrow swath mode, so data is only acquired for partial orbit segments. There are two co-registered images per acquisition and may be from one of seven different image swaths. The Level 0 product was produced systematically for all data acquired within this mode. Data Size: 56-100 km across track x 100 km along track. There are three AP Mode Level 0 products: ASA_APH_0P: The Cross-polar H Level 0 product corresponds to the polarisation combination HH/HV. ASA_APV_0P: The Cross-polar V Level 0 product corresponds to the polarisation combination VV/VH. ASA_APC_0P: The Co-polar Level 0 product corresponds to the polarisation combination HH/VV= H and H received/V transmit and V received.
Mission - Third Party Missions
WorldView-4
WorldView-4 was an imaging and environment-monitoring satellite from Maxar of the United States, which offered very high resolution imagery.
News - Infographics
Envisat - ESA's versatile Earth observation satellite
Learn more about ESA's Envisat mission - the largest Earth observation satellite ever built - in a new infographic.
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 - Project Proposal (Restrained)
WorldView-3 full archive and tasking
WorldView-3 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-3 offers archive and tasking panchromatic products up to 0.31m GSD resolution, 4-Bands/8-Bands products up to 1.24 m GSD resolution, and SWIR products up to 3.70 m GSD resolution. Band Combination Data Processing Level Resolution High Res Optical: Panchromatic and 4-bands Standard(2A)/View Ready Standard (OR2A) 15 cm HD, 30 cm HD, 30 cm, 40 cm, 50/60 cm View Ready Stereo 30 cm, 40 cm, 50/60 cm Map Ready (Ortho) 1:12.000 Orthorectified 15 cm HD, 30 cm HD, 30 cm, 40 cm, 50/60 cm High Res Optical: 8-bands Standard(2A)/View Ready Standard (OR2A) 30 cm, 40 cm, 50/60 cm View Ready Stereo 30 cm, 40 cm, 50/60 cm Map Ready (Ortho) 1:12.000 Orthorectified 30 cm, 40 cm, 50/60 cm High Res Optical: SWIR Standard(2A)/View Ready Standard (OR2A) 3.7 m or 7.5 m (depending on the collection date) Map Ready (Ortho) 1:12.000 Orthorectified 4-Bands being an optional from: 4-Band Multispectral (BLUE, GREEN, RED, NIR1) 4-Band Pan-sharpened (BLUE, GREEN, RED, NIR1) 4-Band Bundle (PAN, BLUE, GREEN, RED, NIR1) 3-Bands Natural Colour (pan-sharpened BLUE, GREEN, RED) 3-Band Colored Infrared (pan-sharpened GREEN, RED, NIR1) 8-Bands being an optional from: 8-Band Multispectral (COASTAL, BLUE, GREEN, YELLOW, RED, RED EDGE, NIR1, NIR2) 8-Band Bundle (PAN, COASTAL, BLUE, GREEN, YELLOW, RED, RED EDGE, NIR1, NIR2) Native 30 cm and 50/60 cm resolution products are processed with MAXAR HD Technology to generate respectively the 15 cm HD and 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.