ESA's ERS-2: a pioneer's final journey back to earth

Join us in bidding farewell to ERS-2, the trailblazing European Remote Sensing satellite, set to reenter Earth's atmosphere in mid-February.The two satellites were designed as identical twins with one important difference – ERS-2 included an extra instrument to monitor ozone levels in the atmosphere.

Launched in 1995, ERS-2, along with its predecessor ERS-1, was a technological marvel at its time. These Earth observation satellites were equipped with instruments, including an imaging synthetic aperture radar, a radar altimeter, and other powerful sensors that measured ocean-surface temperature, winds at sea, and atmospheric ozone.

For instance, the radar on today’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission owes its origins to the ERS radar, while the radar altimeter on the CryoSat Earth Explorer mission to map changes in ice thickness followed in the footsteps of ERS-2. The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment on ERS-2 was the precursor to instruments like Sciamachy on Envisat and GOME-2 on MetOp.

ESA's commitment to extracting valuable insights from historical satellite data is evident through its Heritage Space Programme. This initiative ensures that data from now-inactive satellites, like ERS-2, continue to be refined and utilized, yielding ongoing discoveries about our changing world and the associated risks.officially retired ERS-2 and commenced the deorbiting process.

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