Nada dura eternamente. Eso es igual para las personas como para los satélites. Después de 16 años de un precioso y preciso trabajo, el satélite de observación terrestre ERS 2 está condenado a convertirse en polvo y fuego. En Space.
Tag: Earth Observation
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ESA Euronews: A satellite’s story
Everything must come to an end — including satellites. After 16 years of loyal service observing Earth, the ERS-2 satellite has retired.
This edition of Space tells the life story of the venerable satellite. -
GOCE: Geoid
Launched on 17 March 2009, ESA’s Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) is bringing about a whole new level of understanding of one of Earth’s most fundamental forces of nature: the gravity field. Dubbed the ‘Formula 1’ of satellites, GOCE is mapping Earth’s gravity field in unprecedented detail.
This has given rise to a unique model of the ‘geoid’, which is the surface of an hypothetical global ocean in the absence of tides and currents, shaped only by gravity. It is a crucial reference for measuring ocean circulation and sea-level change, which are affected by climate change.
The colours in the image represent deviations in height ( -100 m to + 100 m) from an ideal geoid. The blue colours represent low values and the reds/yellows represent high values.
See also: Earth’s gravity revealed in unprecedented detail at: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM1AK6UPLG_index_0.html
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Introducing the GOCE Earth Explorer satellite
To achieve its crucial scientific objectives, ESA’s ‘Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer’, or GOCE, satellite must orbit as low as possible, in order to sense minute variations in the Earth’s gravitational field – at the edge of space and the limits of the atmosphere at only 268 km!