Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission is a microwave imaging satellite whose operation is led by ESA as part of their Earth Explorer missions. SMOS provides global observations on soil moisture and ocean salinity to improve our understanding of the water cycle and our weather forecasting ability.

Albedo is the ratio of the radiation (radiant energy or luminous energy) reflected by a surface to that incident on it. Snow and cloud surfaces have a high albedo, because most of the energy of the visible solar spectrum is reflected. Vegetation and ocean surfaces have low albedo, because they absorb a large fraction of the energy. Clouds are the chief cause of variations in the Earth's albedo.The land surface albedo is the ratio of the radiant flux reflected from Earth's surface to the incident flux. It is a key forcing parameter controlling the partitioning of radiative energy between the atmospheric and surface. In the case of vegetation, a reference surface is typically defined at or near the top of the canopy and must be specified explicitly. Surface albedo depends on natural variations, highly variable in space and time as a result of terrestrial properties changes, and with illumination conditions and human activities and is a sensitive indicator of environmental vulnerability.

Ice depth or thickness refers to the extent of the ice below the surface of the water. The term is also used in river and lake ice studies. Remote sensing techniques (particularly radar and microwave) have been used to estimate ice thickness as have recently declassified submarine measurements of polar ice thickness.

GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) satellites mapped detailed measurements of the global gravitational fields with unprecedented precision. Data from GRACE satellites covered wide application areas. GRACE consists of two satellites (A, B) serving one mission.

EnviSat was a satellite mission monitoring Earth's environment. EnviSat application areas included meteorology, climatology, environment, atmospheric chemistry, vegetation, hydrology, land use, and ocean and ice processes. EnviSat was a research mission that carried ten instruments and provided a wealth of data related to Earth's health and climate change. EnviSat carried the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer( MERIS), Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS), Radar Altimeter-2 (RA-2), Laser Retro-Reflector (LRR), Microwave Radiometer (MWR), Advanced SAR (ASAR), Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars (GOMOS), Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography (SCIAMACHY), Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer, provided by the UK and Australia (AATSR), and Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS).

Sentinel-2 is a constellation of two optical imaging satellites, which are a part of Copernicus - the European Union's Earth observation program.

Launched in October 2005, CryoSat was a next-generation radar altimetry mission, aiming to determine variations in the thickness of the Earth's continental ice sheets and marine ice cover. Primary objective is to test the prediction of thinning arctic ice due to global warming. CryoSat was supposed to be the first Earth Explorer Opportunity mission in ESA's Living Planet program, but was lost in a launch failure on 8 October 2005, prompting the development of a successor mission, CryoSat-2.

SARAL (Satellite with ARgos and ALtiKa) is an altimetric minisatellite operated by ISRO and CNES. Launched in 2013, data gathered by SARAL has applications in oceanography and atmospheric studies.

ICESat (Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite) is a NASA/GSFC mission within the ESE (Earth Science Enterprise) program. The prime objective is to monitor the mass balance of the polar ice sheets and their contributions to global sea level change. Secondary goals are to measure cloud heights and the vertical structure of clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere, further to measure roughness, reflectivity, vegetation heights, snow-cover, and sea-ice surface characteristics, and to map topography of land surfaces. Note: ICESat is the renamed former "Laser Altimetry-1" mission.

ERS-2 (European Remote Sensing Satellite -2) was launched in April 1995, the ERS-2 was an enhancement of the previous ERS-1 mission. ERS-2 provided microwave spectrum environmental monitoring across a range of disciplines (oceans, polar ice, forestry).