THE CEOS DATABASE : MISSION SUMMARY

THE CEOS DATABASE : Missions, Instruments and Measurements

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CEOS EO HANDBOOK – MISSION SUMMARY - ERS-2 -

Full Name

European Remote Sensing satellite - 2

Status

Mission complete

Mission Agencies

ESA

Launch Date

21 Apr 1995

Mission Links

mission site

EOL Date

04 Jul 2011

EO Portal Info

NORAD Catalog #

23560 (TLE)

International Designator

1995-021A

Orbit Type

Sun-synchronous

Orbit Period

100.5 minutes

Orbit Sense

Descending

Orbit Inclination

98.52 deg

Orbit Altitude

782 km

Orbit Longitude

Orbit LST

10:30

Repeat Cycle

35 days

Objectives and Applications

Earth resources plus physical oceanography, ice and snow, land surface, meteorology, geodesy/gravity, environmental monitoring, atmospheric chemistry.

Mission Measurements

Category	Parameter	Instrument(s)
Atmosphere	Aerosols	ATSR-2
	Atmospheric Humidity Fields	ATSR/M, GOME, MWR, RA
	Cloud type, amount and cloud top temperature	ATSR-2, GOME
	Ozone	GOME
	Radiation budget	ATSR-2, GOME
	Trace gases (excluding ozone)	GOME
Gravity and Magnetic Fields	Gravity, Magnetic and Geodynamic measurements	RA
Land	Albedo and reflectance	ATSR-2
	Landscape topography	AMI/SAR/Image, RA
	Soil moisture	AMI/SAR/Image, AMI/Scatterometer
	Vegetation	AMI/SAR/Image, AMI/Scatterometer, ATSR-2
	Surface temperature (land)	ATSR-2
	Multi-purpose imagery (land)	AMI/SAR/Image, ATSR-2
Ocean	Ocean topography/currents	AMI/SAR/Image, RA
	Ocean surface winds	AMI/SAR/Wave, AMI/Scatterometer, RA
	Surface temperature (ocean)	ATSR-2
	Ocean wave height and spectrum	AMI/SAR/Image, AMI/SAR/Wave, RA
	Multi-purpose imagery (ocean)	AMI/SAR/Image, ATSR-2
Snow & Ice	Ice sheet topography	AMI/SAR/Image, RA
	Snow cover, edge and depth	AMI/SAR/Image
	Sea ice cover, edge and thickness	AMI/SAR/Image, AMI/Scatterometer, RA