{"id":11122,"date":"2024-02-23T01:54:53","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T01:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/power2innovate.com\/heritage-ers-2-satellite-returns-to-earth\/"},"modified":"2024-02-23T01:54:53","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T01:54:53","slug":"heritage-ers-2-satellite-returns-to-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/power2innovate.com\/heritage-ers-2-satellite-returns-to-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Heritage ERS-2 satellite returns to Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Artist’s impression of ERS-2 in space. Credit: ESA
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Launched in 1995, ERS-2 was a pioneering Earth observation satellite that greatly influenced our understanding of our planet and climate change. Despite an intended operational life of only three years, the satellite had a 16-year operational lifetime, and together with the almost identical ERS-1 satellite left an important legacy for the future of Earth observation.<\/p>\n

ERS-2 collected a wealth of valuable data about our planet’s land surfaces, oceans and polar caps, and also monitored natural disasters including severe flooding and earthquakes in remote parts of the world.<\/p>\n

Although the satellite was still functioning, the European Space Agency (ESA) brought the mission to an end in 2011. The longer an inactive satellite remains in orbit, the greater the risk of collision with other satellites or space debris, so the decision was made to lower the ERS-2’s average altitude from 785km above the Earth to 573km, thus commencing the de-orbit process. This reduced the time that that the spacecraft would spend in orbit from more than 100 years to less than 15.<\/p>\n

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\n ERS-2 re-entering the atmosphere, photographed on 29 January\u00a0\u200b2024. Credit: HEO
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At the time of launch, the ERS-1 and ERS-2 satellites were the most sophisticated Earth observation satellites ever developed in Europe. In March 2000, a computer failure led to the end of the ERS-1 mission, however ERS-2 would survive for much longer.<\/p>\n

Surface temperature data is needed for weather forecasting, ocean prediction and climate monitoring, and while “in situ” measurements (e.g., from buoys) are useful, satellite data can cover the whole ocean, including in remote regions. Both ERS-1 and ERS-2 carried an instrument called the Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR), which enabled scientists to accurately estimate temperature by detecting infrared heat from the Earth’s surface.<\/p>\n

The ATSR series were originally developed by a U.K. consortium led by RAL Space, and have gone on to influence future instruments including the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) for ESA’s Sentinel-3 satellites. The series are considered among the most accurate remote sensing instruments in terms of data calibration, having provided a “gold standard” for Earth’s surface temperatures over a period of more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

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