The ENVISAT mission: access to the data

The ENVISAT mission, as it predecessors ERS-1 and ERS-2, is designed to respond equally to scientific, operational and commercial needs. The satellite´s instrumentation, the ground segment and services and the overall exploitation policy, i.e. the high level operations planning and the data policy, are aimed at satisfying all three areas of interest. For research use, scientists can make project proposals at any time during the mission and obtain data at cost of reproduction. In addition, a large number of projects have been selected within an Announcement of Opportunity and will benefit from free access to ENVISAT data. For commercial applications, ESA has selected two experienced distributing entities, which will propose products and specialized services, within a competitive scheme.