earth online
  • All Categories (15)
  • Data (1)
  • News (3)
  • Missions (1)
  • Events (1)
  • Documents (9)
  • News - Infographics

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    Key facts about Canada's ozone-studying SCISAT mission

    Learn about the SCISAT mission in our new infographic.

  • News - Success Stories

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    Satellites track the health of the ozone layer

    ESA’s Earth observation activities are contributing to international efforts to monitor and preserve the layer of stratospheric ozone that blankets the planet.

  • News - Thematic area articles

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    Space data help to unravel the complexities of Earth’s atmosphere

    As the impacts of the climate crisis intensify, scientists are using ESA’s Earth observation archives to investigate atmospheric processes and their influences on the planet’s changing environment.

  • Event - Conference

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    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.

  • Document - Publication - Paper

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    Atmospheric-Chemistry-Experiment-ACE-Mission-Overview.pdf

    This paper was published in the GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, Vol.32 (L15S01, doi:10.1029/2005GL022386, 2005) and presents an overview of the Canadian mission SCISAT-1 (also known as the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment ACE) and some of its first scientific results.

  • Data - External Data (Restrained)

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    SciSat-1: ACE-FTS and MAESTRO

    SCISAT-1 data aim at monitoring and analysing the chemical processes that control the distribution of ozone in the upper troposphere and stratosphere. It provides acquisitions from the two instruments MAESTRO and ACE-FTS. MAESTRO: Measurement of Aerosol Extinction in the Stratosphere and Troposphere Retrieved by Occultation. Dual-channel optical spectrometer in the spectral region of 285-1030 nm. The objective is to measure ozone, nitrogen dioxide and aerosol/cloud extinction (solar occultation measurements of atmospheric attenuation during satellite sunrise and sunset with the primary objective of assessing the stratospheric ozone budget). Solar occultation spectra are being used for retrieving vertical profiles of temperature and pressure, aerosols, and trace gases (O3, NO2, H2O, OClO, and BrO) involved in middle atmosphere ozone distribution. The use of two overlapping spectrometers (280 - 550 nm, 500 - 1030 nm) improves the stray-light performance. The spectral resolution is about 1-2 nm. ACE-FTS: Fourier Transform Spectrometer. The objective is to measure the vertical distribution of atmospheric trace gases, in particular of the regional polar O3 budget, as well as pressure and temperature (derived from CO2 lines). The instrument is an adapted version of the classical sweeping Michelson interferometer, using an optimised optical layout. The ACE-FTS measurements are recorded every 2 s. This corresponds to a measurement spacing of 2-6 km which decreases at lower altitudes due to refraction. The typical altitude spacing changes with the orbital beta angle. For historical reasons, the retrieved results are interpolated onto a 1 km "grid" using a piecewise quadratic method. For ACE-FTS version 1.0, the results were reported only on the interpolated grid (every 1 km from 0.5 to 149.5 km). For versions 2.2, both the "retrieval" grid and the "1 km" grid profiles are available. SCISAT-1 collection provides ACE-FTS and MAESTRO Level 2 Data. As of today, ACE-FTS products are available in version 4.1, while MAESTRO products are available in version 3.13.

  • Mission - Third Party Missions

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    SCISAT-1

    SCISAT-1 is designed to make observations of Earth's atmosphere and its main instruments are an optical Fourier transform infrared spectrometer and an ultraviolet spectrophotometer.

  • Document - General Reference

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    BIOMASS-Report-for-Mission-Selection-An-Earth-Explorer-to-observe-forest-biomass.pdf

    The objective of the BIOMASS Mission is to determine the global distribution of forest biomass by reducing the uncertainty in the calculation of carbon stock and fluxes associated with the terrestrial biosphere.

  • Document - General Reference

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    CoReH2O-Report-for-Mission-Selection-An-Earth-Explorer-to-observe-snow-and-ice.pdf

    This report describes the CoReH2O (Cold Regions Hydrology high-resolution Observatory) mission, which was selected for feasibility study in the third cycle of Earth Explorers.

  • Document - Product Readme Note

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    Retrievals-for-the-Atmospheric-Chemistry-Experiment-Fourier-Transform-Spectrometer.pdf

    This paper describes the approach developed for the retrieval of atmospheric temperature and pressure from the troposphere to the lower thermosphere as well as the strategy for retrievals of volume-mixing ratio profiles of atmospheric species.

  • Document - Proceedings

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    Advances-in-Atmospheric-Science-and-Applications.pdf

    Proceedings in Advances in Atmospheric Science and Applications held in 18-22 June 2012 in Bruges, Belgium.

  • Document - User Guide

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    Third Party Missions, Cat-1 Data Availability

    This brochure gives a quick overview on the availability of the Third Party Missions IRS-P3, JERS-1, NIMBUS, Proba, Landsat, KOMPSAT-1, SCISAT-1, Terra/Aqua, NOAA, QSCAT, OrbView, SPOT-1,-2,-3,-4, ALOS.