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Envisat's instruments [ ]

ENVISAT is the most powerful tool ever created for monitoring the state of our planet and the impact that our activities have on it. Producing enough digital data to fill the hard drives of 500 desktop PCs every day, Envisat views the Earth with unprecedented detail and richness. The truck-sized satellite carries 10 instruments, powered by a 70 m2 solar array generating 6 kW of electricity after 5 years.

ENVISAT’s unique capability is driven not only by the selection of instruments. The ability to combine data from different sources into highly-sophisticated products - often digital images or ‘maps’ -reveals views of the world that have never before been possible. And the long lifetime of ENVISAT, coupled with the legacy of compatible data from ESA’s ERS-1 and-2 satellites, will enable scientists to create FOUR-dimensional pictures, showing the evolution of complex environmental phenomenon through timescales of over ten years.  

  Envisat's instruments are:  
 
Instrument Main purpose
MERIS The MEdium Resolution Imaging Specrometer instrument measures radiation in 15 frequency bands that give information about ocean biology, marine water quality, vegetation on land, cloud and water vapour.
ASAR The Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar provides all weather, day and night radar imaging.
AATSR The Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer measures sea-surface temperature, a key parameter in determining the existence and/or extent of global warming.
GOMOS The Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars observes the concentration of ozone in the stratosphere.
SCIAMACHY The SCanning Imaging Absorption SpectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY measures trace gases and aerosol concentrations in the atmosphere.
MIPAS The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding collects information about chemical and physical processes in the stratosphere, such as those that will affect ozone concentration in future.
RA-2 The Radar Altimeter measures distance from satellite to Earth. So it can measure sea-surface height, an important measurement for monitoring El Niño, for example.
MWR The Microwave radiometer allows corrections to be made to radar altimeter data.
DORIS The Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite gives the position of Envisat in its orbit to within a few centimetres.
This is crucial to understanding the measurements all the instruments make.
LRR The Laser retro-reflector reflects pulsed laser to ground stations to help determine the satellite’s exact position in its orbit.