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INSTRUMENTS
Explore the many instruments the European Space Agency use to observe the Earth. ESA offer data from a wide range of optical, radar, atmospheric, altimetric and gravimetric instrumentation.
Instrument - Imaging Spectrometers/Radiometers
AATSR
The AATSR instrument aboard Envisat was primarily designed to measure Sea Surface Temperature.
Instrument - Accelerometers
ACC (Swarm)
The Accelerometer measures the Swarm satellite’s non-gravitational acceleration in its respective orbit.
Instrument - Imaging Radars
ASAR
ASAR ensures continuity with the image mode (SAR) and the wave mode of the ERS-1/2 AMI.
Instrument - MAGNETOMETERS
ASM
The Absolute Scalar Magnetometer on the Swarm satellites measures the strength of the magnetic field.
Instrument - Imaging Spectrometers/Radiometers
ATSR
The Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) on board ERS-1 and ERS-2 mission consisted of two instruments, an Infra-Red Radiometer and a Microwave Sounder.
Instrument - Imaging Spectrometers/Radiometers
AVNIR-2
The Advanced Visible and Near-Infrared Radiometer-2 (AVNIR-2) was a visible and near infrared radiometer for observing land and coastal zones.
Instrument - Imaging Spectrometers/Radiometers
CHRIS
Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS) provided data of spectral reflectances.
Instrument - Magnetic Field/Electric Field Instruments
EFI
The Electric Field Instrument (EFI) aboard the Swarm satellites is the first 3D ionospheric imager in space.
Instrument - Accelerometers
EGG
The main objective of GOCE's EGG was to measure the three components of the Gravity-Gradient Tensor.
Instrument - GPS
GPSR and LRR (Swarm)
Each Swarm satellite is equipped with a Laser Retro-Reflector for external calibration and validation of the on-board GPS receiver.
Instrument - Cameras
HRC
The High Resolution Camera (HRC) is a black and white camera with a miniaturised telescope on the PROBA-1 mission.
Instrument - Laser Ranging
LRR (Envisat)
The LRR instrument aboard Envisat was used to accurately determine the orbital height of the satellite.
Instrument - Imaging Spectrometers/Radiometers
MERIS
The MERIS instrument aboard Envisat was primarily dedicated to providing ocean colour measurements.
Instrument - Interferometers
MIPAS
MIPAS was an atmospheric instrument carried aboard the Envisat satellite.
Instrument - Interferometric Radiometers
MIRAS
The MIRAS instrument is a passive microwave 2-D interferometric radiometer onboard the SMOS satellite.
Instrument - Imaging Spectrometers/Radiometers
MWR (Envisat)
The MWR instrument, on board Envisat mission, measured integrated atmospheric water vapour column and cloud liquid water.
Instrument - Imaging Spectrometers/Radiometers
MWR (ERS)
The microwave radiometer (MWR) instrument on board the ERS-1 and ERS-2 missions provided measurements of the integrated atmospheric water vapour column and cloud liquid water content.
Instrument - Imaging Radars
PALSAR
The ALOS-1 PALSAR was a successor sensor to the synthetic aperture radar on board JERS-1.
Instrument - Imaging Spectrometers/Radiometers
PRISM
PRISM was a panchromatic radiometer on the ALOS-1 mission with 2.5 m spatial resolution at nadir.
Instrument - Radar Altimeters
RA (ERS)
The Radar Altimeter (RA) was a Ku-band (13.8 GHz) nadir-pointing active microwave sensor, on board ERS-1 and ERS-2 missions, designed to measure echoes from ocean and ice surfaces.