The successor of the ERS-1 mission, with new instruments

ERS-2 (European Remote-Sensing satellite) is the successor, and basically a copy, of the ERS-1 mission, with the addition of two new instruments and the improvement of those already used by its predecessor. ERS-2 was launched on April 21st, 1995, aboard an Ariane 4 carrier, from the spaceport in Kourou, French Guyana, and shared the same orbital plan as ERS-1. 

The new instruments were the GOME (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment) spectrometer, designed to study the chemical composition of the atmosphere, and the ATSR-2 (Along Track Scanning Radiometer), capable also of carrying out measurements related to the vegetation and the chlorophyll. 

After a few failures, the ERS-2 mission ended on September 5th, 2011. The satellite was moved to a lower orbit, where the risk of collision with other “colleagues” is very low. ERS-2 followed the road mapped out by its “older brother”, but it also carried out some new tasks, such as the measurement of ozone levels and the monitoring of changes in the vegetation.

Same as it happened with ERS-1, was also involved in this mission for the processing of the data acquired by ERS-2 by the I-PAF and I-PAC facilities, located by the Geodesy Centre of the Italian Space Agency in Matera.

‣ News

THURSDAY 31 AUGUST 2023

The catalogue of PRISMA acquisitions is now freely available on GEOSS portal ‣

The catalogue data is updated daily MORE...

FRIDAY 09 SEPTEMBER 2022

PRISMA for extraction of Fire Fuel Maps ‣

A new image by PRISMA MORE...

FRIDAY 29 JULY 2022

PRISMA for extraction of Fire Severity Maps ‣

The prototypal processor “Fire Severity Map” was developed in the framework of the ASI-funded project “Sviluppo di Prodotti Iperspettrali Prototipali Evoluti MORE...

FRIDAY 15 JULY 2022

PRISMA for Retrieval of Vegetation Indicators ‣

The PRISMA image, a 30 km x 30 km spotlight acquisition, was processed within the ASI project " Sviluppo di Prodotti Iperspettrali Prototipali Evoluti  MORE...

FRIDAY 01 JULY 2022

PRISMA for Chlorophyll Concentration Retrieval of Inland Waters ‣

PRISMA captures the Varese Lake MORE...