ESA News
http://www.esa.int

28 February 2007

Envisat still going strong after five successful years

Launched from Kourou in French Guiana on the night of 28 February 2002,
ESA's Envisat spacecraft marks its fifth year in space. Having orbited Earth
more than 26 000 times, the world's largest and most complex environmental
satellite ever launched has travelled a distance of more than 1 000 000 000
kilometres, nearly the equivalent of travelling to Jupiter and back.

Generating some 280 Gigabytes of data products daily, Envisat has gathered
500 Terabytes to date. The amount of data returned by Envisat's suite of 10
instruments is providing scientists with a global picture of our environment
and is helping to fulfil the initial needs of the Global Monitoring for
Environment and Security (GMES) initiative until the launch of the Sentinel
satellites.

Results of ongoing research projects using data from Envisat, as well as
other ESA satellites, will be presented at the 2007 Envisat Symposium in
Montreux, Switzerland, from 23 to 27 April. This anniversary is particularly
important because it marks the end of Envisat's nominal lifetime, as the
satellite was initially only intended to stay in orbit for five years.
However, given the overall excellent standing of the satellite, the ESA
Member States have agreed to fund the mission operations until 2010.

To mark five years of Envisat, four picture galleries have been created to
provide an overview of the mission. Click on the images below to view.

Atmosphere

By observing changes in the Earth's radiation budget, the depletion of the
ozone layer, plumes of aerosols and pollutants and exhaust trails left in
the atmosphere by airliners, Envisat supplies us with an accurate view of
our atmosphere.

Land

By mapping the distribution of forests, agricultural land and human
settlements and even tiny changes in surface elevation provoked by
earthquakes or land subsidence, and monitoring vegetation characteristics,
Envisat supplies us with an accurate view of our land.

Ocean

By monitoring critical indicators such as sea surface temperature, sea
surface height and even tiny marine plankton, Envisat supplies us with an
accurate view of our oceans. It is able to track illegal fisheries and oil
slicks pollution as well as detect ocean eddies and currents.

Ice

By charting alterations in response to climate, looking for warning signs of
changes in snow or ice reflectivity (known as 'albedo') and accurately
measuring both ice extent and glacier velocity, Envisat supplies us with an
accurate view of our cryosphere.

[NOTE: Images and weblinks supporting this release are available at
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM129N0LYE_index_1.html ]