Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
1
Introduction: new frontiers of
environmental governance
For some, like the newspaper 'The European', the Agency might be seen
as 'a watch-dog without teeth'. Or as Lord Tordoff remarked recently, we
could become 'just an information black hole'. For others, who are aware
of the power of information in our society, the Agency could go to the
opposite extreme and become a concealed power center, a Trojan Horse.
Domingo Jimenez-Beltran, executive director of the EEA, 1995
1. The dawn of a new era
Twelve years and more than sixty thousand orbits on from its
launch, the Earth Observation mission of Europe's Space Association
ESA, ERS-2 satellite, continues with all instruments functioning well.
ERS-2 was launched on 21 April 1995, ensuring continuity of data
from ERS-1, the first European Remote Sensing program mission. A
growing global network of ground stations of more than three thou-
sand users is receiving data from the veteran spacecraft ERS-2. When
the Asian tsunami struck in December 2004, satellites provided rapid
damage mapping. Another ERS-2 sensor working in near-real time
is its Global Ozone Mapping Experiment (GOME), delivering atmo-
spheric global coverage of ozone and other trace gases and supporting
operational services such as Tropospheric Emission Monitoring Inter-
net Service (TEMIS), which provides daily ozone, ultraviolet and air
pollution monitoring. The latter functions are mainly supported by
another satellite, Envisat. In March 2002, the European Space Agency
launched Envisat, an advanced polar-orbiting earth observation satel-
lite that provides measurements of the atmosphere, ocean, land and
ice. The Envisat satellite has an ambitious and innovative payload
that will ensure the continuity of the data measurements of the ESA
European Remote Sensing satellites. Envisat data support earth sci-
ence research and allow monitoring of the evolution of environmental
and climatic changes. Next to the large number of professional users,
1
