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News - Maintenance News
(A)SAR Online Dissemination Service maintenance - 12 April 2023
A maintenance activity affecting the ESA (A)SAR Online Dissemination Service will take place on 12 April 2023, from 07:00 to 13:00 UTC.
News - Infographics
Quick guide to Data Service Request submission
Follow this quick guide to learn how to submit a Data Service Request, which is required when applying for level zero (A)SAR data from ESA's European Remote Sensing satellites (ERS) and the Envisat mission.
News - Thematic area articles
Transforming space data into climate action
ESA’s Earth observation activities are playing a key role in the revitalised global drive to combat climate change.
Event - Training
2nd Advanced Training Course on Ocean Remote Sensing 2009
This advanced training course focused on ocean remote sensing theory and applications.
News - Success Stories
ERS' Contribution to Altimetry
Satellite radar altimetry missions have transformed the way we see Earth and its oceans. Using the ranging capability of radars, they measure the surface topography profile along a satellite’s track.
News - Data Release news
New reprocessing of datasets celebrates 30 years of ERS
The ERS programme celebrated its 30th anniversary on 17 July. Today, we are still exploiting ERS data and experts continue to work on improving the altimeter, radiometer and SAR data the programme acquired.
News - Success Stories
ERS Heritage Data allow for 30 years of science
At their time of launch thirty years ago, the two ERS satellites were the most sophisticated Earth observation spacecraft ever developed and launched by Europe.
Tools - Apps
Heritage Missions app for iOS
Download the Heritage Missions application to discover what the missions were about, how it worked and what the elements of the space and ground segment that make these missions unique.
Tools - Apps
Heritage Missions app for Android
Download the Heritage Missions application to discover what the missions were about, how it worked and what the elements of the space and ground segment that make these missions unique.
Instrument - Scatterometers
SAR (ERS)
The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instrument aboard ERS-1 and ERS-2 was capable of high precision change detection of surface heights.
Data - Data Description
ERS-1/2 SAR IM Medium Resolution L1 [SAR_IMM_1P]
This ERS Medium Resolution stripline product is generated from the Image Mode Level 0 Product. Stripline image products contain image data for an entire segment, up to a maximum size of 10 minutes per product for IM mode. The processor concatenates together several sub-images called "slices" that were processed separately on a dataset-by-dataset basis in order to form the entire stripline image. The product is processed to an approximately 150 m x 150 m resolution and has a radiometric resolution that is good enough for ice applications. This product has a lower spatial resolution than the SAR_IMP_1P and SAR_IMS_1P products. Product Characteristics: Pixel size: 5 m (ground range – across track) x 75 m (azimuth – along track) Scene area: 100 km (range) x at least 102.5 km Scene Size: 1300 pixels (range) x at least 1350 lines (azimuth) Pixel depth: 16 bits unsigned integer- Total product volume: at least 3.5 MB Projection: Ground-range Number of looks: 8 (azimuth) x 7 (range)
Data - Data Description
ERS-1/2 SAR IM Precision L1 [SAR_IMP_1P]
The SAR Precision product is a multi-look (speckle-reduced), ground range image acquired in Image Mode. This product type is most applicable to users interested in remote sensing applications, but is also suitable for calibration purposes. The products are calibrated and corrected for the SAR antenna pattern and range-spreading loss. Radar backscatter can be derived from the products for geophysical modelling, but no correction is applied for terrain-induced radiometric effects. The images are not geocoded, and terrain distortion (foreshortening and layover) has not been removed. The numbering sequence relates to the satellite position and therefore differs between Ascending and Descending scenes. Product characteristics: Pixel size: 12.5 m (range - across track) x 12.5 m (azimuth - along track) Scene area: 100 km (range) x at least 102.5 km (azimuth) Scene size: 8000 pixels range x at least 8200 lines (azimuth) Pixel depth: 16 bits unsigned integer Total product volume: 125 MB Projection: Ground-range Number of looks: 3
Data - Data Description
ERS-1/2 SAR IM Single Look Complex L1 [SAR_IMS_1P]
The SAR SLC product is a single look complex acquired in Image Mode. It is a digital image, with slant range and phase preserved, generated from raw SAR data using up-to-date auxiliary parameters. The products are intended for use in SAR quality assessment, calibration and interferometric applications. A minimum number of corrections and interpolations are performed on the data. Absolute calibration parameters (when available) are provided in the product annotation. Product characteristics: Pixel size: 8 m (range - across track) x 4 m (azimuth - along track – varying slightly depending on acquisition Pulse Repetition Frequency) Scene area: 100 km (range) x at least 102.5 km (azimuth) Scene size: 5000 samples (range) x at least 30000 lines (azimuth) Pixel depth: 32 bits signed integer (16 bits I, 16 bits Q) Total product volume: 575 MB Projection: Slant range- Number of looks: 1
Data - Data Description
ERS-1/2 SAR IM L0 [SAR_IM__0P]
This SAR Level 0 product is acquired in Image Mode. The products consist of the SAR telemetry data and are supplied as standard scenes. It also contains all the required auxiliary data necessary for data processing. The product serves two main purposes: For testing ERS SAR processors independently from the HDDR system For users interested in full SAR data processing. Product characteristics: Scene area: 100 km (range - across track) x full segment length (azimuth - along track) Scene size: 5616 samples (range) x full segment length (azimuth) Pixel depth: 10 bits signed integer (5 bits I, 5 bits Q) Projection: Slant range
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.
Document - Product Specifications
ERS-products-specification-with-Envisat-format.pdf
ERS-products-specification-with-Envisat-format
Document - General Reference
SCI-GLS-14-0001-v01-Scatterometry-Glossary-1.2.pdf
The Scatterometry Glossary defines the commonly agreed terminology to use in all the documents generated by the SCIRoCCo Consortium.
Activity - Quality
SCIRoCCo
The SCIRoCCo project is an interdisciplinary cooperation of scatterometry experts aimed at promoting the continuing exploitation of ESA's unique 20 years' worth of ERS Scatterometer data.
Activity - Quality
REAPER
The REAPER (REprocessing of Altimeter Products for ERS) project covers both the ERS-1 and the ERS-2 altimetry missions. The project aims to support and maintain data quality.
Document - User Guide
Envisat and ERS Missions Data Access Guide
The purpose of this document is to help users identify the various types of data that are available from the ENVISAT, ERS-1 and ERS-2 Earth observing satellites, the kind of applications that the data may be used for and, importantly, the practical procedures required for access - including user registration and then search, selection and retrieval or ordering of the data of interest.