News - Events and Proceedings

Workshop celebrates end of long-running PROBA-1 satellite

In January, ESA will mark the end of its long-running CHRIS sensor onboard the PROBA-1 satellite in a special workshop.

Event - Meeting

VH-RODA and CEOS SAR workshop

The workshop provided an open forum for the presentation and discussion of current status and future developments related to the calibration and validation of space borne very high-resolution SAR and optical sensors and data products.

Data - Data Description

TropForest - ALOS, GEOSAT-1 & KOMPSAT-2 optical coverages over tropical forests

The objective of the ESA TropForest project was to create a harmonised geo-database of ready-to-use satellite imagery to support 2010 global forest assessment performed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission and by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Assessments for year 2010 were essential for building realistic deforestation benchmark rates at global to regional levels. To reach this objective, the project aimed to create a harmonised ortho-rectified/pre-processed imagery geo-database based on satellite data acquisitions (ALOS AVNIR-2, GEOSAT-1 SLIM6, KOMPSAT-2 MSC) performed during year 2009 and 2010, for the Tropical Latin America (excluding Mexico) and for the Tropical South and Southeast Asia (excluding China), resulting in 1971 sites located at 1° x 1° geographical lat/long intersections. The project finally delivered 1866 sites (94.7% of target) due to cloud coverages too high for missing sites. Spatial coverage: Check the spatial coverage of the collection on a map available on the Third Party Missions Dissemination Service.

Document - User Guide

TPM-L-OADS-dissemination-service-User-Manual.pdf

This guide describes the Third Party Missions Dissemination System.

Document - Proceedings

Topographic mapping from small satellites- a case study of CHRIS-PROBA data

This paper presents a study on the use of various empirical models for satellite orientation and terrain modelling using multidirectional CHRIS data, and evaluates the potential of small satellites with multidirectional viewing capabilities for topographic mapping.

News - Infographics

Timeline to over 40 years of historical satellite missions

ESA's Heritage Space Programme preserves historical data from over 40 years of Earth observation missions.

Document - User Guide

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.

Document - General Reference

Third Party Missions Brochure

This brochure summarises ESA's Third Party Missions programme, providing a timeline and examples of content related to some of the missions.

Document - General Reference

The PROBA-CHRIS Mission- A Low-Cost Smallsat for Hyperspectral, Multi-Angle, Observation of the ---

Document - General Reference

The PROBA Satellite Star Tracker Performance

Document - General Reference

The MSG System - consisting of a Space Segment and a Ground Segment, designed to provide data, based on a series of three satellites called MSG-1, -2 and -3

This article was published in the ESA Bulletin Nr. 111.

Document - General Reference

The International Charter- Space and Major Disasters

The Charter is an important step forward in linking the needs of disaster and relief organisations with space technology solutions to help mitigate the effects of disaster on human life, property and the environment.

Document - General Reference

The In-Orbit Commissioning of MSG-1

This article was published in the ESA Bulletin Nr. 114.

News - Success Stories

The Earthnet Programme: 40 years of evolution and future challenges

ESA's Earthnet Programme provided the initial means to access and exploit Earth Observation data.

Document - General Reference

The Earth Observation Handbook, 2010 Update - Key Tables

This is the 2010 update of the CEOS Earth Observation Handbook. You can browse the live database at http://database.eohandbook.com/ or download the printable PDF of key tables based on the 2010 database contents for a handy reference.

Document - General Reference

The Earth from ALOS - New Perspectives from Space including 3D

This brochure gives an example of the ALOS spectacular scenes, 3D pictures and general info on the satellite applications.

Document - Proceedings

The contribution of the European Space Agency to the ALOS PRISM- AVNIR-2 commissioning phase

This paper was presented at IGARSS 2007 (23-27 July 2007 - Barcelona, Spain). It summarizes the strategy that ESA adopted to define and implement a data verification plan for mission operated by foreign nations, classified as so called ESA Third Party Missions.

Document - General Reference

The Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS)- The Future of Hyperspectral Satellite ---

Campaign

SPARC

ESA's SPectra bARrax Campaign (SPARC) activity was part of the preparatory study for a proposed ESA Earth Explorer mission called SPECTRA. The objective was to collect a CHRIS/PROBA reference dataset for SPECTRA-related studies.

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.