«e 
THE ESA REMOTE SENSING PROGRAMME : PRESENT 
ACTIVITIES AND FUTURE PLANS 
  
  
Je PREVIN -. (ESA) 
ABSTRACT 
In the first half of the paper a general review is given of 
the European Space Agency's (ESA) current activities and 
future plans in spaceborne remote sensing, in particular 
(a) The analyses carried out to identify and quantify user 
requirements for a European Remote Sensing Space Pro- 
gramme. 
(b) The ESA Earthnet programme established to acquire and 
disseminate data from NASA satellites such as Landsat 
and Seasat. 
(c) The metric camera and microwave facility experiments to 
be flown on the First Spacelab Flight in 1980. 
(d) The Agency's ongoing study activities aimed at identify- 
ing the elements of a European remote sensing space pro- 
gramme for land and ocean annlications. 
In the second half of the paper a more detailed description 
is provided of the Agency's present system definition 
studies on the Land Applications Satellite comprising 
optical and active microwave sensors and both European and 
development aid applications, and the Coastal Oceans 
Monitoring Satellite aimed at a variety of applications 
associated with the surveillance and monitoring of the pro- 
posed 200 nautical mile economic zone and continental shelf 
regions.