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ENVISAT
The ESA's ENVISAT satellite
was
launched on March 1, 2002. It is primarily intended for scientific
research. The Envisat programme is a continuation of the ERS-1
and ERS-2 missions.
Along with instruments which were already present on the ERS satellites
(ASAR, RA-2, AATSR), ENVISAT also has onboarda range of new instruments,
including GOMOS (Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars),
MIPA (Michelson Onterferometer for Passive Atmospheric sounding)
and SCIAMACHY (SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric
CartograpHY).
The MERIS (MEdium Resolution
Imaging Spectrometer) instrument is a programmable spectrometer
allowing data recording in 15 spectral bands in the 390 –
1040 nm range and with a spatial resolution of 1040 x 1200 m for
marine applications and of 2360 x 300 m for land and coastal applications..
The 10 instruments onboard
Envisat are designed to study Earth’s land, ocean, atmosphere
and ice caps. The collected data from the various sensors can be
used to:
• study environmental and climate changes on Earth at the local,
regional and global levels
• contribute to the management and monitoring of all raw materials,
whether renewable or not
• continue measurements to serve the meteorological community
• acquire a better understanding of the dynamic and structure
of the Eearth's crust and interior.
Among the parameters that can be studied, we can
mention: ocean colour, cloud cover, ozone layer thickness, greenhouse
gas emissions, terrestrial biomass, iceberg topography, wave height,
soil moisture content or the top-of-atmosphere irradiance.
altitude: 800 km
inclination: 98,6°
orbit: sun-synchronous
orbit period: ±100 min
revisit time (MERIS): 3 days
service life: 1/03/2002 - operational
Mission
website
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