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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 - Lidar/Laser Sounders

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    ALADIN

    ALADIN, on board Aeolus, is a Direct Detection Doppler Wind Lidar operated in the ultraviolet range.

  • Instrument - Imaging Radars

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    ASAR

    ASAR ensures continuity with the image mode (SAR) and the wave mode of the ERS-1/2 AMI.

  • Instrument - Accelerometers

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    EGG

    The main objective of GOCE's EGG was to measure the three components of the Gravity-Gradient Tensor.

  • Instrument - Interferometric Radiometers

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    MIRAS

    The MIRAS instrument is a passive microwave 2-D interferometric radiometer onboard the SMOS satellite.

  • Instrument - Imaging Spectrometers/Radiometers

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    MWR (Envisat)

    The MWR instrument, on board Envisat mission, measured integrated atmospheric water vapour column and cloud liquid water.

  • Instrument - Imaging Spectrometers/Radiometers

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    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 - Radar Altimeters

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    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.

  • Instrument - Radar Altimeters

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    RA-2

    The RA-2 instrument aboard Envisat acquired radar altimetry data over ocean, land and ice surfaces.

  • Instrument - Radar Altimeters

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    SIRAL

    SIRAL (SAR Interferometer Radar Altimeter) is the primary instrument onboard ESA's CryoSat mission.

  • Instrument - GPS

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    SSTI

    SSTI was a state-of-the-art GPS receiver on GOCE that was designed to operate in a low-Earth orbit.