Ground Segment
The Envisat ground segment provides the
means and resources to manage and control the mission, to receive and process the data
produced by the instruments, and to disseminate and archive the generated products.
Furthermore, it provides a single interface to the users to allow optimum utilization
of the system resources in line with the user needs. The ground segment can be split into two major elements:
- the flight operation segment (FOS), which is
responsible for the command and control of the satellite;
- the payload data segment (PDS), which is
responsible for the exploitation of the instrument data.
![[Kiruna Ground Station]](../images/kiruna.jpg)
Kiruna ground station
The satellite-to-ground communication links
rely on various ground stations (Kiruna, Fucino, Svallbard, and Villafranca - the latter
as TT&C back-up) and the ESA data relay satellite system Artemis which will provide
direct communication between Envisat and the ground even when the satellite is out of
visibility of the ground stations. This will enable the use of high rate sensors whose data
cannot be stored on board, more optimally managed tape dumps, and enhanced visibility
for command and control. Additional national and ESA ground stations will be involved.
Keywords: ESA European
Space Agency - Agence spatiale europeenne,
observation de la terre, earth observation,
satellite remote sensing,
teledetection, geophysique, altimetrie, radar,
chimique atmospherique, geophysics, altimetry, radar,
atmospheric chemistry
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