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A new level of sophistication

Europe's biggest satellite


Integration of Envisat at the Guiana Space Centre. © Esa/Cnes/Arianespace, 2002

Integration of Envisat at the Guiana Space Centre. © Esa/Cnes/Arianespace, 2002

Envisat, as big as an articulated truck and weighing 8,211 kg at launch, is the biggest satellite ever built in Europe. It is also the most sophisticated, thanks to its state-of-the-art instruments and their unprecedented coordination.

Each day Envisat produces enough data to fill the hard disks of 500 PCs. A consortium of 50 companies under the direction of Astrium constructed the satellite. A 20-company consortium, headed by Alcatel Space, built the ground equipment.



Ten views of the Earth, sea and atmosphere


Envisat is pursuing a range of missions including oceanography, studies of the marine and continental biosphere, atmospheric chemistry, and observation of land surfaces. To meet this challenge, the satellite is carrying a payload of ten highly specialized instruments supplied by ESA in conjunction with several European countries.


Envisat : ten instruments
ASAR Radar for the observation of land surfaces, oceans and polar ice caps.
ASAR MERIS Medium-resolution spectrometer designed to detect the colour of the oceans. It is used to determine the concentrations of phytoplankton or marine pollution.
RA-2 Radar altimeter for ongoing study of ocean surface topography, land surfaces and the polar ice caps
GOMOS Instrument to monitor the ozone layer
MIPAS Atmospheric probe to map concentrations of rare gases in the stratosphere and troposphere.
AATSR Radiometer to measure the temperature at the surface of the sea and continents and to study vegetation growth, soil moisture and cloud composition.
DORIS Exceptionally precise navigation system which determines the position of Envisat on its orbit to within three centimetres.
SCIAMACHY Spectrometer to detect rare gases in the troposphere and the stratosphere.
LLR Laser reflector to precisely determine the orbit of the satellite using laser projections from ground stations
MWR Microwave radiometer to measure the quantity of water vapour in the troposphere

 



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