Campaigns Unit
The Campaigns Unit within the Earth Sciences Division is responsible for experimental Earth observation research, validation and applications development related to land, oceans and atmosphere. It conducts ground-based, airborne, balloon-borne, ship-borne and small satellite experiments in support of ESA Earth Observation missions. ESA does not own nor operate these facilities, but collaborates with national institutes and international organisations.
The activities of the Unit include Application Development Campaigns, Validation Campaigns and Scientific Support.
Application Development Campaigns
These include experiments conducted with a range of Earth observation instruments to investigate the feasibility of future space-borne missions.
In the field of active microwave remote sensing, a number of airborne campaigns are carried out over land and sea. This work supports radar image interpretation and the selection of the best radar wavelength to be used for future applications of radar satellites such as agricultural monitoring, forest monitoring and wind and wave observation over the ocean. Current interests include long-wavelength radar to determine tropical forest biomass and making sub-surface observations in deserts. In addition, airborne radar/lidar experiments are carried out to investigate the observation of clouds and precipitation from space. In Greenland radar/lidar experiments are carried out to remotely measure ice sheets.
In the field of passive microwave remote sensing, radiometer measurements from aircraft are made to study the measurement of soil moisture and ocean salinity from space. These data are supported by measurements from oil rigs and buoys. A future campaign will address passive microwave limb sounding for atmospheric chemistry applications.
In the field of active optical remote sensing, lidar measurements from the ground as well as from aircraft are made to observe clouds, atmospheric water vapour profiles and ice sheets in combination with radar.
In the field of passive optical sensing, a number of airborne spectrometry experiments have been conducted to investigate the observation of land surface and atmospheric processes from space. Experiments are conducted to observe the optical fluorescence signals from forests in order to establish if carbon and water vapour fluxes can be observed directly from space.
Validation Campaigns
Validation campaigns verify that the geophysical data products from satellites are consistent with measurements made by independent means. ERS wind and wave products are validated using aircraft, ships, buoys and numerical weather prediction models. For Envisat a large number of campaigns were carried out over the ocean, on land and in the atmosphere to verify its large number of geophysical data products. Measurements were made by a variety of ground-based stations, radiosondes, large balloons, aircraft and ships. Numerical models and other satellites support this effort. Future validation methods are being investigated and include ocean salinity, soil moisture, ice thickness and the Earth’s gravity field.
Scientific Support
The Campaigns Unit provides project scientist support in the field of active microwave remote sensing to the ERS, Envisat and MetOp projects and convenes the advanced synthetic aperture radar science advisory group as well as the TerraSAR advisory group.
Who are we
- Evert Attema (Head)
- Remo Bianchi
- Malcolm Davidson
- Paul Snoeij
- Patrick Wursteisen
Last update: 20 April 2005 | 
