The Making of the First Envisat Images / ESA TV Exchanges / 26 March 2002

The next transmission of the ESA TV Service will be:
26-Mar-02 13:15 – 13:30 GMT

The Making of the First Envisat Images

ESA TV Exchanges

Background information on the transmission:

Please note the change in the time of the first transmission, now at 13:15 GMT instead of 10:15 GMT!

Replay I: 26 Mar 02 19:45 – 20:00 GMT

Replay II: 30 Mar 02 08:30 – 08:45 GMT

Envisat is getting ready to start observing the earth, providing measurements of the atmosphere, ocean, land and ice over. Four weeks after launch, all antennas are deployed and its instruments are pointing accurately towards the Earth. ESA’s ground controllers and engineers spent the middle of March powering up the satellite and the instruments on board.

One by one, the ten instruments were switched on , and they are now being calibrated and verified. These activities are essential to guarantee the quality of the data that ESA provides to the end user. Global data is recorded on board the satellite and is downlinked once per orbit to the Kiruna station in North Sweden, for immediate data processing.

Further tuning of data takes place at ESA’s ESRIN Establishment in Frascati, Italy. It is here that ENVISAT’s first results are being viewed by an enthusiastic scientific team. This first sight of ENVISAT data already shows the powerful synergy offered by the combination of instruments, which give new dimensions and opportunities for global and regional environment monitoring.

The ESA TV Service will transmit graphics of the first Envisat images on 28 March 2002, at 10:30 and 14:30 GMT.

The 5-minute A-roll contains split audio with an English guide track and is complemented by a B-roll with international sound only, including sound bites with ESA experts. The script is on-line as a PDF document under http://television.esa.int/photos/EbS24397.pdf

This ESA TV Exchanges feed is transmitted by the European Commission’s “Europe by Satellite” (EbS) service. You can find the complete transmission schedule and download scripts and shot lists, also for ESA TV items, from the EbS Web site at http://europa.eu.int/comm/ebs/index.html

More background information can be found on http://envisat.esa.int.

Transmission details:EUTELSAT HOT BIRD at 13° East (DVB/MPEG-2)

Horizontal, F=12,476 MHz (MCPC, Europe by Satellite)

SR=27,500 MS/sec, FEC=3/4

For further information, visit our website at http://television.esa.int. For other enquires, contact Claus Habfast, Tel +31 71 565 3838, Fax +31 71 565 6340, e-mail claus.habfast@esa.int.