ESA Projects

ESA CS XECV Glaciers Karakoram Anomaly (2024 - 2027)

With this proposal for a Cross-ECV activity, we propose an investigation of a widely recognized cryospheric and climatic singularity, the so-called ‘Karakoram Anomaly’ (KA). The KA is expressed by air temperatures that do not increase (e.g. Fowler and Archer 206), glaciers that do not retreat but are stable or even advancing (Hewitt 2011), and glacier mass balances that were close to zero or even positive over the past 20 years (e.g. Hugonnet et al. 2021). On a 50-year time scale and confirmed by studies from Bolch et al. (2017) and Zhou et al. (2017) for the time before 2000, this is the only larger region on Earth where glaciers have gained mass.

Lead: University of Zurich

Project Team: University of Zurich, GUIO, ETH Zurich, ENVEO, GAMMA, Uni Bristol, DWD, CLS

ESA CS XECV ArcFresh (2024 - 2027)

The overall objective of ArcFresh is to advance the current state of knowledge on the freshwater fluxes and freshwater budget in the Arctic Ocean, maximizing the use of Earth Observation (EO)-derived ECV datasets generated in the CCI program.

Lead: DTU

Project Team: DTU, ECCC, ENVEO, SMHI, MetNo, NORCE, NERSC, Univ. Bretagne-Occidentale

ESA CS CryoTipping (2025 - 2028)

CryoTipping combines Earth Observation and numerical modelling to detect marine ice sheet instabilities in the Amundsen Sea Sector, with a focus on Thwaites glacier.

In CryoTipping, we will combine Earth Observation and numerical modelling to detect marine ice sheet instabilities in the Amundsen Sea Sector, focusing on Thwaites glacier. We will make use of the datasets developed within the ESA Antarctic CCI+ project, using observations of grounding line location, ice velocity and surface elevation change. By combining the latest Earth Observation datasets and ice sheet modelling results, our project will investigate the potential of using satellite data to detect early warning signs of the development of marine ice sheet instability in a key glacier of Antarctica and will be the first to integrate observations and modelling, taking into account uncertainties from both, to do so.

Lead: Northumbria University (https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/)

Project Team: DLR, ENVEO

Website: https://climate.esa.int/de/tipping-points-research/about-cryotippping/

ESA 5DAIS - 5D Antarctica (2024 - 2027)

The European Space Agency (ESA) Dynamic 5D Antarctica project will produce a suite of Earth Observation datasets to characterise how the coastal ice sheet and ice shelves in Antarctica have changed over the past decades, and make use of these data sets to investigate the physical processes driving this evolution. Despite the important role that the Antarctic Ice Sheet margins and ice shelves play in the glaciological system, there is currently a lack of satellite-derived geophysical datasets over this critical zone that are continuous in time and have widespread coverage. These observations are required to address important science questions about the rate of change and physical mechanisms responsible for driving the evolution of Antarctic Ice Sheet’s coastal margin and ice shelves. This ESA Dynamic 5D Antarctica (5DAIS) project will address this major science gap by generating new measurements of at least 13 important glaciological parameters, all of which can be observed from Space. This will deliver a step-change in the spatial resolution and temporal frequency with which the Antarctic coastal margin can been observed, advancing our understanding of ice dynamic behaviour in Antarctica, and improving the accuracy with which we can predict its future evolution.

Lead: Univ. Leeds

Project Team: ENVEO, Univ. Edinburgh, Univ. Lancaster, Earthwave, Univ. Grenoble, IFAC

Website: https://5dantarctica.org/

ESA AI4SNOW - Artifical Inteligence for Snow Cover in Mountain Regions (2024 - 2026)

A project within ESA AI4Science – Challenge 1 Multivariate dataset reconstruction. The project develops, implements and validates a new way of facilitating Artificial Intelligence methods for harmonisation, temporal and spatial gap-filling and downscaling of EO based snow products from different sensors and resolutions (https://ai4snow.eoc.dlr.de/). 

Project Team: German Aerospace Center (DLR) Earth Observation Center (EOC) (PI); ENVEO IT GmbH; WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF; ECCC Environment and Climate Change Canada; McGill University; University of Saskatchewan

ESA Contract No. 4000143295

ESA CCI+ Antarctic Ice Sheet (2019 - 2021, 2024 - 2026)

ENVEO is partner in the Antarctic Ice Sheet CCI+ Project, which is part of the Climate Change Initiative of ESA and the continuation of the Ice Sheets CCI and Antarctic Ice Sheet CCI (phase 2) projects. In AIS CCI+ ENVEO is leading the Antarctic ice velocity product from Sentinel-1 SAR data.

Products are provided through ENVEO's CryoPortal and the CCI Open Data Portal.

Project Team: DTU Microwaves and Remote Sensing Group (DTU-N), DTU Geodynamics Group (DTU-S), ENVironmental Earth Observation IT GmbH (ENVEO), Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF), Science [&] Technology AS (ST), Technische Universität Dresden (TUDr), University College London (UCL/MSSL), University of Leeds, School of Earth and Environment (UL)

Website: http://www.esa-icesheets-antarctica-cci.org/

ESA/Contract No. 4000126813/19/I-NB

ESA CCI+ Greenland Ice Sheet (2019 - 2021, 2024 - 2026)

ENVEO is partner in the Greenland Ice Sheet CCI+ Project, which is part of the Climate Change Initiative of ESA and the continuation of the Ice Sheets CCI and Greenland Ice Sheet CCI (phase 2) projects. In GIS CCI+ ENVEO is leading the Greenland ice velocity product from Sentinel-1 SAR data.

Products are provided through ENVEO's CryoPortal and the CCI Open Data Portal.

Project Team: Asiaq Greenland Survey (ASIAQ), DTU-Space, Department of Geodynamics (DTU-S), DTU-Space, Department of Microwaves and Remote Sensing (DTU-N), Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), Environmental Earth Observation IT GmbH (ENVEO), Science [&] Technology AS (S&T), Technische Universität Dresden (TUDr), The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), The Niels Bohr Institute (NBI), University of Leeds, School of Earth and Environment (UL)

Website: http://www.esa-icesheets-greenland-cci.org/

 ESA/Contract No. 4000126023/19/I-NB

ESA CCI+ Snow (Phase 1: 2018 - 2021, Phase 2: 2022 - 2025, Phase 3: 2026 - 2027)

ENVEO is leading the Snow CCI Project, which is part of the Climate Change Initiative extension (CCI+) of ESA. The main objective of the project is the generation of homogeneous, well calibrated, long-term time series of snow cover extent and snow water equivalent from multi-sensor satellite data for climate applications. ENVEO is leading the algorithm development and is contributing to the snow cover extent production from optical satellite data.

Project Team: ENVEO Environmental Earth Observation IT GmbH (PI), Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Eurac Research, Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), GAMMA Remote Sensing AG, Norwegian Computing Centre (NR), University of Berne, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS / IGE), Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), University of Edinburgh

Websites: http://cci.esa.int/snow and http://snow-cci.enveo.at

ESA Contract No. 4000124098/18/I-NB

ESA CCI+ Glaciers (2019 - 2021, 2023 - 2025, 2025 - 2027)

ENVEO is partner in the Glaciers CCI+ Project, which is part of the Climate Change Initiative of ESA and the continuation of the Glaciers CCI (phase 1, phase 2 & phase 3) projects. In Glaciers CCI+ ENVEO is leading the ice velocity product from Sentinel-1 SAR data and the snow areas on glaciers from optical satellite data.

Products are provided through the Glaciers_cci CRDP 2 Database.

Project Team: Department of Geography, University of Zurich (GIUZ), Gamma Remote Sensing AG (GAMMA), Environmental Earth Observation IT GmbH (ENVEO), Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo (GUIO), School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds (SEEL/UL)

Website: http://www.esa-glaciers-cci.org/

ESA/Contract No. 4000127593/19/I-NB

ESA COBIS4HARMONY – Bistatic SAR Retrieval over La Girose Glacier in the La Meije Massif, La Grave, France (2023 - 2024)

Project Team: EOS Electronic Systems, LTD. (PI); Mediation Climat, Micro-enterprise; ENVEO IT GmbH.

ESA Contract No. 4000141690