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MISSIONS
Explore the European Space Agency's Earth Observation satellite missions. Learn all about ESA's dedicated Earth Explorers or collaborations with other agencies through the Third Party Missions programme.
Mission - Earth Explorers
Biomass
The objective of the Biomass mission is to determine the global distribution of forest biomass.
Mission - Heritage Missions
Envisat
Envisat was ESA's successor to ERS. Envisat carried ten instruments aboard for a wide range of Earth observing fields. The mission was operational from 2002 to 2012.
Mission - Heritage Missions
ERS
The ERS programme was composed of two missions, ERS-1 and ERS-2, which together observed the Earth for 20 years, from 1991 to 2011.
Mission - Third Party Missions
IRS-P5 (Cartosat-1)
IRS-P5 (Cartosat-1) was a stereoscopic Earth observation satellite that generated Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and other value-added products.
Mission - Third Party Missions
IRS-R2 (ResourceSat-2)
IRS-R2 (ResourceSat-2) continues the remote sensing data services to global users provided by the ResourceSat-1 mission and also provides data with enhanced multispectral/ spatial coverage.
Mission - Heritage Missions
JERS-1
The overall objectives of JERS-1 (Japanese Earth Resources Satellite) were the generation of global data sets with SAR and OPS sensors aimed at surveying resources, establishing an integrated Earth observation system
Mission - Heritage Missions
MOS-1/1B
MOS-1 and 1B, Japan’s first marine observation satellites, were designed to monitor ocean currents, sea surface temperature, atmospheric water vapour, ocean chlorophyll levels, precipitation, and land vegetation.
Mission - Heritage Missions
NOAA POES
NOAA's AVHRR sensor is carried on the POES mission, a constellation of polar orbiting weather satellites.
Mission - Third Party Missions
Pléiades
The Pléiades programme followed the SPOT programme satellite series, introducing advanced technologies in Earth observation.
Mission - Third Party Missions
PROBA-1
PROBA-1 is a technology demonstration satellite that later became an operational Earth observation mission.
Mission - Earth Watch
PROBA-V
The PROBA-V mission provides multispectral images to study the evolution of the vegetation cover on a daily and global basis.
Mission - Heritage Missions
QuickBird-2
QuickBird-2 was an Earth-imaging satellite. When launched in 2001, it was then the highest resolution commercial satellite.
Mission - Heritage Missions
RADARSAT
The RADARSAT programme consists of a pair of remote sensing satellites from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
Mission - Heritage Missions
RapidEye
Together, the five RapidEye satellites were capable of collecting over 4 million square kilometres of 5 m resolution, 5-band colour imagery every day.
Mission - Third Party Missions
SkySat
SkySat is a constellation of high-resolution Earth imaging satellites from the commercial company Planet Labs.
Mission - Heritage Missions
SPOT
The SPOT (from French "Satellite pour l'Observation de la Terre") series of missions has been supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery since 1986.
Mission - Heritage Missions
SPOT 1
SPOT 1 was designed to improve the knowledge and management of Earth's resources, detecting and forecasting phenomena involving climatology and oceanography, and monitoring human activities and natural phenomena.
Mission - Heritage Missions
SPOT 2
SPOT 2, like all the SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.
Mission - Heritage Missions
SPOT 3
SPOT 3, like all the SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.
Mission - Heritage Missions
SPOT 4
SPOT 4, like all the SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.