Envisat MERIS Full Resolution Top of Atmosphere Radiance Measurements

MERIS Level 1 Full Resolution data contains Top of Atmosphere upwelling spectral radiance measured across 15 spectral bands. The European Space Agency produced this data from the Envisat mission, with a reprocessing release in July 2020. Each product is composed of 22 NetCDF files, including radiance and error estimates for each band.

Use Cases

• Calculate vegetation indices by combining radiance values from specific bands like the red and near-infrared channels.
• Monitor coastal water quality by analyzing radiance in the blue and green spectral bands for chlorophyll detection.
• Perform atmospheric correction for land surface temperature retrieval using the Top of Atmosphere radiance data across all 15 bands.
• Assess data quality and uncertainty for downstream applications by utilizing the error estimates provided for each radiance band.

Strengths

• Provides radiance data across 15 distinct spectral bands, enabling multi-spectral analysis.
• Includes associated error estimates for each radiance measurement, supporting uncertainty quantification.
• Data released in a Sentinel 3-like NetCDF 4 format from July 2020 reprocessing, aiding interoperability.

Limitations

• Data acquisition was subject to on-demand planning, resulting in non-uniform global coverage with gaps.
• The product duration and size are variable, dependent on the acquired segment, complicating batch processing.
• The dataset's last update was in 2012, indicating no new data collection after the Envisat mission ended.

Provenance

Source

European Space Agency (ESA) Envisat mission.

Collection Method

Measured by the MERIS instrument onboard the Envisat satellite, processed to Level 1.

Time Range

Coverage during the Envisat mission operational period.

Freshness

null

Geography

Global coverage, but density varies based on on-demand acquisition planning.