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SCIAMACHY on ENVISAT / IUP-IFE BREMEN

SCIAMACHY homepage

  • Mission of SCIAMACHY on ENVISAT ended April 2012 (more...)
  • It is now ten years since the ENVISAT European environment satellite was launched into orbit around the Earth. Among the equipment on board is the “Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography” – SCIAMACHY for short. It is continually mapping the ozone layer and the development of the ozone hole. Over the past decade, it has delivered reliable and important data which help scientists to better understand phenomena like the hole in the ozone layer.
  • Moreover, SCIAMACHY provides data on the efficiency of environmental protection measures and the increased threat to the environment in the wake of economic growth. Lead scientist of the SCIAMACHY mission is Professor John P. Burrows of the Institute of Environmental Physics at the University of Bremen. Working in cooperation with the German Aerospace Center Dort (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen, this is where the data are systematically evaluated and interpreted – data that have considerably influenced our worldview in the past decade. (full press release)
  • SCIAMACHY (Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric CHartographY) is an imaging spectrometer whose primary mission objective are global measurements of trace gases in the troposphere and in the stratosphere. The solar radiation transmitted, backscattered and reflected from the atmosphere is recorded at relatively high resolution (0.2 nm to 1.5 nm) over the range 240 nm to 1700 nm, and in selected regions between 2.0 µm and 2.4 µm.
  • The IUP Bremen is the PI (principle investigator) institute for SCIAMACHY. This homepage offers complete information about SCIAMACHY and access to our data products.
  • In summer 2006 the book describing the first very successful years of the SCIAMACHY mission has been published. Meanwhile it has been distributed in the atmospheric science user community, among management bodies and the public. The book was a common effort of many authors with DLR, ESA and NIVR providing funding for production and printing. The online version is available as pdf files.
  • SCIAMACHY has three different viewing geometries : nadir, limb, and sun/moon occultations which yield total column values as well as distribution profiles in the stratosphere and (in some cases) the troposphere for trace gases, clouds and aerosols.
The high resolution
The high resolution and the wide wavelength range makes it possible to detect many different trace gases (click to enlarge)
  • February 2007: The SCIAMACHY Book. In summer 2006 the book describing the first very successful years of the SCIAMACHY mission had been published. Meanwhile it has been distributed in the atmospheric science user community, among management bodies and the public. The book was a common effort of many authors with DLR, ESA and NIVR providing funding for production and printing. More details on authorship, printing and publishing can be found in the imprint which is part of the editorial, table of content, forward chapter. The online version is available as pdf files. By clicking on an individual chapter in the table of content listed below the reader get access to just that chapter. Additionally the book cover is provided as a single sheet to illustrate SCIAMACHY's global view of the Earth's atmosphere. (more...)
(click to enlarge)
(click to enlarge)
  • Nature 437, 129-132 (1 September 2005) | doi: 10.1038/nature04092 : "Increase in tropospheric nitrogen dioxide over China observed from space" , Andreas Richter, John P. Burrows, Hendrik Nüss, Claire Granier and Ulrike Niemeier
  • Nature Article
  • ESA Info (English)
Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP)
Institute of Remote Sensing (IFE)
Universität Bremen Otto-Hahn-Allee 1
28359 Bremen Germany