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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 - Scatterometers
WS
The Wind Scatterometer (WS) instrument, on board the ERS-1 and ERS-2 missions, obtained information on wind speed and direction over the sea surface.
Instrument - MAGNETOMETERS
VFM
The Vector Field Magnetometer (VFM) is the primary instrument carried aboard the Swarm satellites.
Instrument - Imaging Spectrometers/Radiometers
Vegetation (VGT)
The main PROBA-V payload is the Vegetation sensor (VGT): a multispectral pushbroom spectrometer.
Instrument - Imaging Spectrometers/Radiometers
Thermal Infra-Red Sensor (TIRS)
TIRS on Landsat-8 mission is a thermal imager that supplements observations from the OLI (Operational Land Imager) instrument.
Instrument - Imaging Spectrometers/Radiometers
Thematic Mapper (TM)
The Thematic Mapper (TM) was a multispectral scanning radiometer on board Landsat-4 and Landsat-5.
Instrument - Radar Altimeters
STR (Swarm)
The Swarm Star Trackers retrieve information on the precise satellite orientation and attitude.
Instrument - GPS
SSTI
SSTI was a state-of-the-art GPS receiver on GOCE that was designed to operate in a low-Earth orbit.
Instrument - Radar Altimeters
SIRAL
SIRAL (SAR Interferometer Radar Altimeter) is the primary instrument onboard ESA's CryoSat mission.
Instrument - Spectrometers
SCIAMACHY
SCIAMACHY was an instrument on board the Envisat satellite that measured atmospheric chemistry.
Instrument - Imaging Radars
SAR (JERS-1)
The JERS-1 mission had a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on board.
Instrument - Scatterometers
SAR (ERS)
The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instrument aboard ERS-1 and ERS-2 was capable of high precision change detection of surface heights.
Instrument - Spectrometers/Radiometers
Return-Beam Vidicon (RBV)
The Return-Beam Vidicon (RBV) instrument was flown onboard the Landsat-1 to 3 satellites.
Instrument - Radar Altimeters
RA-2
The RA-2 instrument aboard Envisat acquired radar altimetry data over ocean, land and ice surfaces.
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.
Instrument - Imaging Spectrometers/Radiometers
PRISM
PRISM was a panchromatic radiometer on the ALOS-1 mission with 2.5 m spatial resolution at nadir.
Instrument - Positioning/Navigation
PRARE
The Precise Range And Range-Rate Equipment (PRARE) was a microwave tracking system on board the ERS-1 and ERS-2 missions.
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
Operational Land Imager (OLI)
The OLI, on board Landsat-8, measures in the visible, near infrared, and short wave infrared.
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 Spectrometers/Radiometers
MWR (Envisat)
The MWR instrument, on board Envisat mission, measured integrated atmospheric water vapour column and cloud liquid water.