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Capabilities of Earth Observation Satellites
Earth Observation Plans: by Measurement
 
  Overview  
  Measurement Timelines  
  Atmosphere  
  Land  
  Ocean  
  Snow and Ice  
  Gravity and Magnetic Fields  
Catalogue of Satellite Missions
 
Catalogue of Satellite Instruments
 
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Earth Observation Plans: by Measurement

Introduction

In early 2012 there were around 110 CEOS agency Earth observation satellites operating and providing important data about Earth and its environment, helping us to develop our understanding of the basic Earth System and human influences on it. These data cover measurements of a very wide range of geophysical parameters, spanning the whole spectrum of the environment – atmosphere, land, oceans, and ice. This section considers some of the key observations contributed by Earth observation satellites, as indicated in the table.

This list is not exhaustive, but it does include many key measurements of interest to the main user groups of Earth observation satellite data, and describes a significant part of the capability of current and planned instruments – including those related to the Essential Climate Variables that are largely measured by satellite.

This section identifies the satellite instruments that primarily contribute data for any particular measurement from the list shown and indicates the plans for future provision of that measurement over the next 15 years. Measurement continuity is a key requirement, particularly for climate applications and environmental change detection, in order to detect and quantify long-term trends. This section identifies the prospects for achieving that continuity, given the programmes and plans that exist in 2012 – whether it may be provided by a single series of satellites dedicated to a particular measurement, or whether users of that measurement must look to various satellite missions planned by different agencies worldwide to satisfy their information requirements.

The need for this continuity and the necessity to ensure that the measurements obtained by different agencies from different countries can be inter-compared and calibrated to meet the most demanding requirements (typically for climate applications) requires a significant degree of coordination in mission planning and data provision. Harmonisation and maximum cost-effectiveness for the total set of space-based observation programmes is the objective of CEOS.
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Measurement categories

ATMOSPHERE
Aerosol properties
Atmospheric temperature fields
Atmospheric humidity fields
Atmospheric winds
Cloud type, amount and cloud-top temperature
Cloud particle properties and profile
Liquid water and precipitation rate
Ozone
Radiation budget
Trace gases (excluding ozone)
LAND
Albedo and reflectance
Land topography
Soil moisture
Vegetation
Surface temperature (land)
Multi-purpose imagery (land)
OCEAN
Ocean colour/biology
Ocean topography/currents
Ocean salinity
Ocean surface vector winds
Surface temperature (ocean)
Ocean wave height and spectrum
Multi-purpose imagery (ocean)
SNOW AND ICE
Ice sheet topography
Snow cover, edge and depth
Sea ice cover, edge and thickness
GRAVITY AND MAGNETIC FIELDS
Gravity, magnetic and geodynamic measurements
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