The Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) was one of the ten instruments onboard the Envisat satellite launched from Kourou (French Guyana) on the 28th of February 2002 and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) until May 2012. SCIAMACHY measures transmitted, backscattered and reflected radiances from the atmosphere at high resolution (240 to 1700 nm, 2 microns and 2.4 microns). The instrument makes limb and nadir observations that can be combined. Its main objective was to provide global measurements of trace gases in the troposphere and the stratosphere. The data issued by ESA include Level 1B (radiances) and Level 2 (derived quantities) products. They come in a number of versions: a near real time (nrt) version, a consolidated version, result of a first processing by ESA to eliminate bad data and perform a few basic checks, and fully reprocessed versions.

Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) mission was funded jointly by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change External Link (DECC) and the Australian Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research External Link (DIISR). This dataset collection contains version 3 AATSR Multimission land and sea surface data. These data are identical to version 2.1. The instrument uses thermal channels at 3.7, 10.8, and 12 microns wavelength; and reflected visible/near infra-red channels at 0.555, 0.659, 0.865, and 1.61 microns wavelength. Level 1b products contain gridded brightness temperature and reflectance. Level 2 products contain land and sea-surface temperature, and NDVI at a range of spatial resolutions. The third reprocessing was done to implement updated algorithms, processors, and auxiliary files. The data were acquired by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Envisat satellite, and the NERC Earth Observation Data Centre (NEODC) mirrors the data for UK users.

Skin Sea Surface Temperature data from the (A)ATSR Validation Campaign by SISTeR. The prime objective of the (A)ATSR mission is to return accurate measurements of the global sea surface temperature. To ensure the accuracy of the measurement, there have been joint efforts to validate the data. One of these efforts is the (A)ATSR Validation Campaign which involves the deployment of the Scanning Infrared Sea surface Temperature Radiometer (SISTeR). The SISTeR is a self-calibrating radiometer that measures the skin sea surface temperature. The SISTeR was mounted on MS Color Festival and MS Prinsesse Ragnhild to return skin sea surface temperature in the North Sea in 2006, and was on-board RMS Queen Mary 2 collecting data from the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean and Western Pacific between 2010 and 2014. Data was collected continuously throughout the cruises unless severe weather conditions required the instrument to be protected, which results in the prevention of the data collection.

Landsat 4 and Landsat 5 carry both the TM (thematic mapper) and the MSS (multi-spectral scanner) sensors, though routine collection of MSS data was terminated in late 1992. The satellites orbit at an altitude of 705 km and provide a 16-day, 233-orbit cycle with a swath overlap that varies from 7 percent at the Equator to nearly 84 percent at 81 degrees north or south latitude. Landsat data is widely used in many fields including geology, agriculture, resource management, climate analysis etc. The Landsat program is jointly managed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the US Geological Survey (USGS). The NERC Earth Observation Data Centre (NEODC) now also holds the data. The cost of retrieving data from these satellites is now prohibitive and they are now obsolete; in 1993 Landsat 6 failed to achieve orbit but the launch of Landsat 7 in 1999 provided open source data at less than commercial prices. See Landsat 7 article. Note: Gaining access to the Landsat 4/5 TM data will also automatically give you access to the Landsat 7 etm data also held at the NEODC

Data products produced from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), on-board EOS Terra. MISR is a unique instrument that has 9 cameras all pointing towards different directions, taking images in each of blue, green, red and infra-red band spectrum (centre wavelengths are 446, 558, 672 and 867 nm respectively). The information is used to investigate how sunlight scatters in the atmosphere in different natural conditions, and distinguish types of clouds, atmospheric particles and surfaces. The red and infra-red bands are used for vegetated surface identification and marine aerosol studies. The green band is used to study the albedo, while the blue band aids in the determination of particle size of the aerosol. EOS Terra is a satellite in the Earth Observation System, a group of polar-orbiting satellites which are dedicated to study Earth's climate.

The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment–2 (GOME–2), is an optical spectrometer, fed by a scan mirror which enables across–track scanning in nadir, as well as sideways viewing for polar coverage and instrument characterisation measurements using the moon. The scan mirror directs light into a telescope, designed to match the field of view of the instrument to the dimensions of the entrance slit. This scan mirror can also be directed towards internal calibration sources or towards a diffuser plate for calibration measurements using the sun. This dataset collection contains vertical profiles of ozone and other trace gases from the GOME-2 instrument on-board the Eumetsat Polar System (EPS) Metop-A satellite. GOME–2 comprises four main optical channels which focus the spectrum onto linear silicon photodiode detector arrays of 1024 pixels each, and two Polarisation Measurement Devices (PMDs) containing the same type of arrays for measurement of linearly polarised intensity in two perpendicular directions. GOME–2 senses the Earth’s Backscattered Radiance and Extraterrestrial Solar Irradiance in the ultraviolet and visible part of the spectrum (240 – 790 nm). The detected signals are preprocessed on board and then transmitted to ground for full data processing and generation of maps. The recorded spectra are used to derive a detailed picture of the total atmospheric content of ozone and the vertical ozone profile in the atmosphere, vertical profiles of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, water vapour, oxygen / oxygen dimmer, bromine oxide and other trace gases, as well as aerosols.

AVHRR-3 scans the Earth's surface in six spectral bands in the range of 0.58-12.5 microns, to provide day and night imaging of land, water and clouds and measurements of sea surface temperature, ice snow and vegetation cover. The instruments were provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and is flown on the EPS-METOP series of satellites This dataset collection contains data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer-3 (AVHRR-3) on board the Eumetsat Polar System (EPS) MetOp-A satellite.

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instruments have been flown on board ERS-1, ERS-2 and the Advanced SAR (ASAR) on board Envisat satellite. The ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat satellites, launched in 1991, 1995 and 2002 respectively, are ESA multi-payload, Earth observation satellites. This dataset collection contains Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from the European Remote Sensing (ERS) satellites ERS-1 and ERS-2, and Advanced SAR data from Envisat. The ERS-1 mission began in 1991 and ended in 2000, and ERS-2 and Envisat are still ongoing. SAR provides high resolution images, ocean wave spectra data and wind direction vector data. They are available through the NEODC to UK based students only.

4km resolution Global Area Coverage (GAC) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Level 1B data are available from 1978 - 2013 for the whole globe from NOAA satellites 06 through 12, 14 through 19 and Tiros-N, and from Metop A and B.

This dataset collection contains a 10 year monthly climatology and monthly composites of the fractional contributions of three phytoplankton size classes (micro-, nano- and picoplankton) over the globe for the period Sep 1997-2007, as produced by the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) using SeaWIFs data. Accompanying maps are also available. This dataset contributes to fulfilling the first objective of the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) Theme 2 programme (Monitoring, Diagnosis and Prediction of the Global Carbon-Cycle), Quantification of ocean biogeochemistry and carbon fluxes sub-theme 6 (ST6): Quantify the global oceanic organic C cycle using OC data, partitioned into phytoplankton (pigments, biomass, size structure & PFTs), particulate organic C, coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM), dissolved and particulate inorganic components. Understanding the interaction between phytoplankton and the in-water light field is crucial to model ocean primary production and to improve our comprehension of the role of biological processes in the ocean–carbon cycle. The absorption coefficient of phytoplankton is a fundamental quantity in marine primary production models because: - it alters the transmission of light underwater; - it modifies the photosynthetic response of phytoplankton to available light; - it can be used as a direct indicator of phytoplankton abundance and phytoplankton size; - it can be used as an indicator of environmental variability It is well known that the phytoplankton absorption coefficient is a function of the dominant phytoplankton pigment, chlorophyll-a, and that this relationship is directly linked to changes in both pigment composition and size structure.