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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 - Heritage Missions
GRACE
GRACE stands for the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment and was a part of the international Earth Observing System (EOS) series of satellites.
Mission - Third Party Missions
OceanSat-2
OceanSat-2 provides service continuity for the operational users of the OCM (Ocean Colour Monitor) instrument launched in 1999 on board the predecessor IRS-P4/OceanSat-1 mission.
Mission - Third Party Missions
Odin
Odin is an atmosphere-studying satellite mission from Sweden, Canada, France and Finland.
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.
Mission - Earth Explorers
EarthCARE
EarthCARE will examine the role clouds and aerosols play in trapping infrared radiation emitted from Earth's surface.
Mission - Meteorological Missions
Meteosat Second Generation
The ESA Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) programme, started in 1994, is composed of four satellites.
Mission - Meteorological Missions
MetOp
MetOp is a mission dedicated to improving weather forecasts and monitoring Earth's climate.
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 - Third Party Missions
Spire
Spire Global's constellation of Lemur nanosatellites offer satellite-based maritime, aviation and weather tracking.
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 - Third Party Missions
GOSAT-2
GOSAT-2 (Greenhouse gases Observing Satellite-2) is a JAXA satellite dedicated to the observation of greenhouse gases.
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
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
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
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 - Third Party Missions
PROBA-1
PROBA-1 is a technology demonstration satellite that later became an operational Earth observation mission.
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
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
Aeolus
The Aeolus mission which was launched into space on 22 August 2018 and was retired on 30 April 2023, provided global observations of wind profiles from space to improve the quality of weather forecasts, and to advance our understanding of atmospheric dynamics and climate processes.
