ESA´s Earth Explorer scientific missions

ESA Earth Explorer missions are driven by the response of the scientific community to periodic calls for the new mission proposals. The last such calls were in March 2005 and October 2009, respectively, with the ultimate aim to select and develop the 7th (EE7) and 8th (EE8) Earth Explorer missions, to be launched within this decade. As a consequence of these calls, several candidate EE7 and EE8 missions were selected for further study. Presently, the Biomass, CoReH₂O and PREMIER candidate missions are now completing feasibility study prior to the competitive selection of the 7th Explorer mission in 2013. Similarly, two candidates FLEX and CarbonSat recently began feasibility studies prior to selection of the 8th Explorer. This paper provides an overview of their respective scientific objectives and observational capabilities of the new candidates, together with some of the early highlights of the Explorer missions in operation.