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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
Swarm
Swarm is dedicated to creating a highly detailed survey of Earth’s geomagnetic field and its temporal evolution as well as the electric field in the atmosphere using a constellation of three identical satellites.
Mission - Earth Explorers
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
FLEX
The FLEX mission will provide global maps of vegetation fluorescence, which can be converted into an indicator of photosynthetic activity.
Mission - Earth Explorers
EarthCARE
EarthCARE will examine the role clouds and aerosols play in trapping infrared radiation emitted from Earth's surface.
Mission - Third Party Missions
PROBA-1
PROBA-1 is a technology demonstration satellite that later became an operational Earth observation mission.
Mission - Earth Explorers
GOCE
ESA's Gravity field and Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) mission mapped Earth's geoid very accurately, opening a window into Earth's interior structure as well as the currents circulating within the depths of its oceans.
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
FSSCat
The FSSCat mission was an innovative concept that consisted of two federated 6-Unit Cubesats, called ³Cat-5/A and ³Cat-5/B, which operated in support of the Copernicus Land and Marine Environment services.
Mission - Third Party Missions
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
GHGSat
The GHGSat mission is dedicated to measuring emissions of greenhouse gases.
Mission - Copernicus Sentinels
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
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
Landsat-4 and Landsat-5
The Landsat-4 and Landsat-5 missions continued the Landsat programme's goal of providing moderate-resolution optical remote sensing for land, coastal areas and shallow waters.
Mission - Heritage Missions
NOAA POES
NOAA's AVHRR sensor is carried on the POES mission, a constellation of polar orbiting weather satellites.
Mission - Heritage Missions
Landsat-1 to Landsat-3
The Landsat-1 to 3 satellites were the first in the United States' Landsat programme, dedicated to monitoring the Earth's land mass.
Mission - Heritage Missions
IRS-P6 (ResourceSat-1)
IRS-P6 (also known as ResourceSat-1) launched on 17 October 2003 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre by the Indian PSLV-C5, and came to an end on 30 September 2013.
Mission - Third Party Missions
Aura
NASA's Aura mission studies the chemistry and dynamics of Earth's atmosphere from the ground through the mesosphere.
Mission - Meteorological Missions
MetOp
MetOp is a mission dedicated to improving weather forecasts and monitoring Earth's climate.
Mission - Third Party Missions
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.