ERS-2

The mission

ERS-2 is ESA's second EO mission, (after ERS-1) and was launched in 1995.

Both carry a comprehensive payload including a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and a radar altimeter for studying sea surface temperatures and winds; ERS-2 additionally carries a sensor for atmospheric ozone research.

When they were launched, the two ERS satellites were the most sophisticated EO spacecraft ever developed and launched in Europe.

In March 2000, a computer and gyro control failure led to the end of ERS-1's mission. The ERS-2 mission has however continued to be a great success, lasting well beyond its original three year design lifetime and overcoming critical on-board problems.

In 2001, after the failure of several on-board gyro systems, an innovative new scheme for flying and controlling the ERS-2 mission without gyros was invented by a group of engineers across ESA and industry- the "gyro-less" yaw steering mode or "Zero-Gyro Mode". In 2003, a failure in the on-board data storage system led to the mission being re-designed as "real-time" only, with science data directly relayed to ground at the time of acquisition. These in-flight adaptations have enabled the mission to be extended well beyond its design lifetime, and ERS-2 had already surpassed more than 82 000 orbits at the end of 2010.

The mission ended on 5 September with the 'passivation' and switch-off of ERS-2.

Editor's note: This article will no longer be updated and contains some information that is now out of date.

The Flight Control Team

The ERS-2 Mission Operations Control Centre is located at ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany; the Flight Control Team operates from the combined Earth Observation Dedicated Control Room (DCR).

The small, 8-person Flight Control Team is managed by Spacecraft Operations Manager (SOM) Frank-Jürgen Diekmann, from Germany, and is responsible for command and control and overall operations of the satellite, with in-depth support from other ESOC teams.

Mission operations overview

The ERS-2 mission comprises the ERS-2 satellite, ground segment facilities at ESOC and other locations for data processing and archiving, and ground stations for telemetry and data receipt. The mission uses advanced microwave (radar) techniques to provide measurements of the Earth's atmospheric and surface properties regardless of cloud and sunlight conditions. This contributes to the scientific study and understanding of our climate and the environment.

The satellite was launched from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana on 21 April 1995 by an Ariane-4 rocket and was injected directly into its Sun-synchronous polar orbit at an altitude of approximately 800 km. ERS-2 is a three-axis stabilised, Earth-pointing satellite, orbiting Earth with an inclination of about 98.5°, which gives it a visibility of most areas of the Earth as the planet rotates beneath the satellite's orbit.

The orbital period is approximately 100 minutes. Minor adjustments of the orbital inclination and of the spacecraft altitude allow the orbital track pattern on the Earth's surface to repeat itself exactly after a certain number of days, for example 3, 35 or 168, with 35 chosen as the current option to synchronise with Envisat until November 2010, when the Envisat orbit was changed.

The ERS spacecraft platform is based on France's SPOT (Système Probatoire d'Observation de la Terre) platform, modified according to ERS power, energy-storage and attitude requirements.

The solar array consists of two 5.8 x 2.4m wings, on which are mounted 22 260 solar cells providing an average power of about 2.5 kilowatts. Four nickel-cadmium (NiCd) batteries are sized to allow payload operations during non-sunlit periods. Attitude reference in pitch and roll is obtained from infrared horizon sensors and for yaw from narrow-field Sun sensors aligned to point at the Sun as the satellite crosses the day/night boundary.

While the mission is operating well, ERS-2 has operated since February 2001 without gyroscopes, and the on-board tape drive failed in June 2003, leaving the instruments operating only within visibility of a ground station (additional ground stations have been brought online to increase data-gathering abilities).

The Wind Scatterometer and GOME (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment) were the only instruments of their kind until the launch of MetOp-A on 19 October 2006.

The ERS-2 mission ended on 5 September 2011. The final critical step was to ‘passivate’ ERS-2, ensuring that all batteries and pressurised systems were emptied or rendered safe in order to avoid any future explosion that could create new space debris. Before all systems on board were switched off, the remaining fuel was used in a series of manoeuvres to lower the satellite’s average altitude from 785 km to about 573 km. From there, the natural descent will continue until the satellite re-enters and burns up in the atmosphere well within 25 years.

The ground stations
Kiruna, Svalbard

The ERS-2 prime ground station is Kiruna, Sweden, with S- and X-band capability. Kiruna gives visibility of the satellite for 10 of 14 daily orbits. X-band stations for payload data reception are located in various locations across the globe (currently 12 stations are used). Svalbard, Norway, is also used regularly.

In addition, the ESTRACK stations at Kourou, Perth and Maspalomas are used when necessary.

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