ERS 1/2 overview of scientific results over land

Four years after the launch of ERS-1 the ERS system has provided the user/science community with a very diversified view of our Earth and its environment. Initially the ERS satellites have been designed as an ocean and ice observation system, nevertheless their all-weather imaging capability of land made the ERS satellites a widely used tool for a better understanding of land surfaces and their dynamic processes. It is the purpose of the paper to present the major scientific results of ERS data analysis over land surfaces and summarize the achievements of the ERS data application development