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The orbit
While Envisat is revolving in its polar orbit, the Earth rotates on its axis below. Every time the satellite makes a complete rotation, a new strip of the Earth's surface is scanned, and after a certain number of rotations, the entire surface of the Earth will have been acquired. Some satellites scan a broad strip every time and can, therefore, cover the entire Earth in a few rotations, whereas high resolution satellites scanning only a narrow strip take several days to complete their coverage of the Earth.
Where is Envisat?
Envisat's current location is shown in realistic images from the Earth View website.
Envisat orbits the Earth every 100 minutes at an altitude of 800 km. It gives a global coverage of the Earth every 3 days for most instruments onboard.
ESRIN
ESRIN, known as the ESA Centre for Earth Observation, is located in Frascati, near Rome.
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The centre was created in 1966. One of its chief tasks consists in managing the ground stations and handling and distributing data obtained through ESA's Earth observation missions as well as those of other countries through the Earthnet programme.
In the framework of the European Earth observation programme, ESRIN is responsible for the development and operation of Envisat’s Payload Data System (PDS). This mission, with its load of complex, advanced instruments on board, transmits an enormous quantity of data to Earth that must be processed for their various fields of application.
A special building has been dedicated to housing the infrastructure control and management equipment for Envisat's ground segment. Moreover, ESRIN's ground station of the Artemis communication satellite assures an indirect radio link to Envisat, and the real-time transmission of data from Africa, Southern Asia and America.
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