GMES Contributing Missions

Satellites join to monitor the Earth for GMES

Even when the Sentinels are operational, the Contribution Missions will continue to be essential, delivering complementary data to ensure that a whole range of observational requirements is satisfied.
 
There are around 30 existing or planned Contributing Missions. These include missions from ESA, their Member States, Eumetsat and other European and international third party mission operators that make some of their data available for GMES.

The following categories of Contributing Missions are considered: Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), optical sensors, altimetry systems, radiometers and spectrometers.  
 
Current GMES services mainly utilise the following observation techniques:

• Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors, for all weather day/night observations of land, ocean and ice surfaces

• Medium-low resolution optical sensors for information on land cover, for example, agriculture indicators, ocean monitoring, coastal dynamics and ecosystems

• High-resolution and medium-resolution optical sensors – panchromatic and multispectral – for regional and national land monitoring activities

• Very High Resolution (VHR) optical sensors for targeting specific sites, especially in urban areas as for security applications

• High accuracy radar altimeter systems for sea-level measurements and climate applications

• Radiometers to monitor land and ocean temperature

• Spectrometer measurements for air quality and atmospheric composition monitoring