Its primary objective was gathering data on global land masses while conducting observation for land surveys agriculture forestry fisheries environmental protection disaster prevention and coastal surveillance.
Ers 1 satellite data.
The satellite was put into a sun synchronous polar orbit at an altitude of 782 785 km.
The ers 1 satellite ceased operation in june 1996 and the ers 2 satellite should be operating until at least 1999 so that more data from ers 2 will be available.
Ers 1 failed on 10 march 2000 far exceeding its expected lifespan.
The onboard wind scatterometer provides measurements of near surface wind speed and direction.
It weighs well over two tons and fully deployed covers almost 12 metres.
Ers 1 carried a comprehensive payload including an imaging synthetic aperture radar sar a radar altimeter and other powerful instruments to measure ocean surface temperature and winds at sea.
Esa s two european remote sensing ers satellites ers 1 and 2 were launched into the same orbit in 1991 and 1995 respectively.
Ers 1 is the most sophisticated earth observation satellite ever developed in europe.
The jers 1 japanese earth resources satellite sar is a high resolution all weather imaging radar.
The first sar was launched into space by europe s ariane 4 rocket in july 1991 as one of three main instruments on esa s ers 1 spacecraft.
The ers 1 and ers 2 satellites were launched on 17 july 1991 and 21 april 1995 respectively.
Nasa s provision of the european space agency s esa european remote sensing satellites ers 1 and ers 2 synthetic aperture radar sar data archive via the asf daac is now free and open by agreement between nasa and esa.
The european remote sensing satellite ers 1 launched in 1991 carried a comprehensive payload including an imaging synthetic aperture radar a radar altimeter and other powerful instruments to measure ocean surface temperature and winds at sea.
It was followed by a second on ers 2 in 1995.
Ers 2 added an additional sensor for atmospheric ozone monitoring.
At the time the two ers satellites were the most sophisticated earth observation spacecraft ever developed and launched in europe.
The european remote sensing satellite ers 1 launched in 1991 was esa s first sun synchronous polar orbiting remote sensing mission operated until march 2000.
Their payloads included a synthetic aperture imaging radar radar altimeter and instruments to measure ocean surface temperature and wind fields.