Envisat - Earth Online

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New Dissemination Service for Envisat ASAR Wave Mode data

The three ESA Envisat ASAR Wave Mode collections have been migrated from simple FTPS access to the ESA (A)SAR Online Dissemination Service.

HEDAVI Tutorial: how to search for images in HEDAVI’s Explorer mode

The Explorer mode of the HEritage DAta VIsualisation tool (HEDAVI) allows users to process on-the-fly, visualise, share and export Earth observation data from ESA’s Heritage and Third Party Missions.

FDR4ATMOS - New ESA FDR for Atmospheric composition dataset from ERS-2 GOME and Envisat SCIAMACHY

In addition to releasing new datasets for Envisat SCIAMACHY, the European Space Agency (ESA) has advanced the earth observation capabilities by developing an experimental product under the ESA FDR4ATMOS project (Fundamental Data Records in the domain of satellite Atmospheric Composition).

Release of new Envisat SCIAMACHY reprocessed data

ESA's Envisat SCIAMACHY mission, which ended operations in 2012, continues to yield valuable scientific insights through ongoing data reprocessing efforts.

New stories on change detection and ERS-2 re-entry in HEDAVI

Two new stories are now available in ESA’s HEDAVI (HEritage DAta VIsualisation) tool. HEDAVI visualises Earth observation data from satellites in ESA’s Heritage and Third Party Missions programme, and includes some data from the Copernicus Sentinel satellites.

About Envisat

Envisat logo

Envisat was ESA's successor to ERS. Launched on 1 March 2002 on an Ariane-5 rocket from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana, Envisat was the largest Earth observation spacecraft ever built with 10 instruments aboard and at eight tonnes was the largest civilian Earth observation mission ever launched.

More advanced imaging radar, radar altimeter and temperature-measuring radiometer instruments extended ERS data sets. This was supplemented by new instruments including a medium-resolution spectrometer sensitive to both land features and ocean colour. Envisat also carried two atmospheric sensors monitoring trace gases.

The Envisat mission ended on 8 April 2012, following the unexpected loss of contact with the satellite.

Envisat Objectives

The main objective of the Envisat programme was to endow Europe with an enhanced capability for remote sensing observation of Earth from space, with the aim of further increasing the capacity of participating states to take part in the studying and monitoring of the Earth and its environment.

The primary objectives of Envisat were:

to provide for continuity of the observations started with the ERS satellites, including those obtained from radar-based observations
to enhance the ERS mission, notably the ocean and ice mission
to extend the range of parameters observed to meet the need of increasing knowledge of the factors determining the environment
to make a significant contribution to environmental studies, notably in the area of atmospheric chemistry and ocean studies (including marine biology)

These were coupled with two linked secondary objectives

to allow more effective monitoring and management of the Earth's resources
to better understand solid Earth processes

The mission intended to continue and improve upon measurements initiated by ERS-1 and ERS-2, and to take into account the requirements related to the global study and monitoring of the environment.