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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.

  • Biomass

    The objective of the Biomass mission is to determine the global distribution of forest biomass.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • HydroGNSS

    HydroGNSS is a microsatellite mission, which is part of the Scout framework, and consists of a GNSS-R (Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry) constellation that primarily addresses land. Scout missions are a new element in ESA's Earth Observation FutureEO Programme.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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.

  • NOAA POES

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

  • Pléiades

    The Pléiades programme followed the SPOT programme satellite series, introducing advanced technologies in Earth observation.

  • PROBA-1

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

  • PROBA-V

    The PROBA-V mission provides multispectral images to study the evolution of the vegetation cover on a daily and global basis.

  • QuickBird-2

    QuickBird-2 was an Earth-imaging satellite. When launched in 2001, it was then the highest resolution commercial satellite.

  • RADARSAT

    The RADARSAT programme consists of a pair of remote sensing satellites from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

  • 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.

  • SkySat

    SkySat is a constellation of high-resolution Earth imaging satellites from the commercial company Planet Labs.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • SPOT 2

    SPOT 2, like all the SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.

  • SPOT 3

    SPOT 3, like all the SPOT missions, was aimed at supplying high-resolution, wide-area optical imagery.