earth online
  • All Categories (24041)
  • Data (45)
  • News (70)
  • Missions (22)
  • Events (32)
  • Tools (9)
  • Activities (10)
  • Campaigns (8)
  • Documents (23845)

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

    prompt photo

    SMOS

    The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission is dedicated to making global observations of soil moisture over land and salinity over oceans.

  • Mission - Earth Explorers

    prompt photo

    EarthCARE

    EarthCARE will examine the role clouds and aerosols play in trapping infrared radiation emitted from Earth's surface.

  • Mission - Third Party Missions

    prompt photo

    PROBA-1

    PROBA-1 is a technology demonstration satellite that later became an operational Earth observation mission.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    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

    prompt photo

    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 - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    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 - Third Party Missions

    prompt photo

    TanSat

    The TanSat mission is one of the Earth Observation projects managed by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and is dedicated to detecting and monitoring carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

  • Mission - Third Party Missions

    prompt photo

    GHGSat

    The GHGSat mission is dedicated to measuring emissions of greenhouse gases.

  • Mission - Copernicus Sentinels

    prompt photo

    Copernicus Sentinel-5P

    The Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor mission is the first Copernicus mission dedicated to monitoring our atmosphere.

  • Mission - Copernicus Sentinels

    prompt photo

    Copernicus Sentinel-3

    Copernicus Sentinel-3 is an European Earth Observation satellite mission developed to support Copernicus ocean, land, atmospheric, emergency, security and cryospheric applications.

  • Mission - Third Party Missions

    prompt photo

    GOSAT Series

    The GOSAT series is composed of two environment-monitoring satellites developed by JAXA dedicated to the observation of greenhouse gases.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    NOAA POES

    NOAA's AVHRR sensor is carried on the POES mission, a constellation of polar orbiting weather satellites.

  • Mission - Third Party Missions

    prompt photo

    GOSAT-2

    GOSAT-2 (Greenhouse gases Observing Satellite-2) is a JAXA satellite dedicated to the observation of greenhouse gases.

  • Mission - Heritage Missions

    prompt photo

    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 - Third Party Missions

    prompt photo

    Spire

    Spire Global's constellation of Lemur nanosatellites offer satellite-based maritime, aviation and weather tracking.

  • Mission - Third Party Missions

    prompt photo

    Aura

    NASA's Aura mission studies the chemistry and dynamics of Earth's atmosphere from the ground through the mesosphere.

  • Mission - Meteorological Missions

    prompt photo

    MetOp

    MetOp is a mission dedicated to improving weather forecasts and monitoring Earth's climate.

  • Mission - Meteorological Missions

    prompt photo

    Meteosat Second Generation

    The ESA Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) programme, started in 1994, is composed of four satellites.

  • Mission - Third Party Missions

    prompt photo

    SCISAT-1

    SCISAT-1 is designed to make observations of Earth's atmosphere and its main instruments are an optical Fourier transform infrared spectrometer and an ultraviolet spectrophotometer.

  • Mission - Third Party Missions

    prompt photo

    Odin

    Odin is an atmosphere-studying satellite mission from Sweden, Canada, France and Finland.