Satellite due to fall to earth after nearly 30 years

The ERS-2 satellite was launched in 1995, joining older sister satellite ERS-1, at the time the most sophisticated earth observation satellites ever developed.

The ERS-2 was retired in 2011 and began the process of deorbiting.

After 13 years of orbital decay, mainly driven by solar activity, the satellite is set to naturally re-enter earth's atmosphere on Wednesday.

The satellite will break up into pieces during re-entry, the majority of which will burn up, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.

The ESA is still monitoring its landfall, which is predicted to occur somewhere over the east coast of central Africa.

Any pieces that survive making landfall will be spread out over a ground track on average hundreds of kilometres long and a few tens of kilometres wide, so the associated risks are deemed very low.

The ESA's Space Debris Office predicts the satellite re-entry will occur around 3.32pm GMT on Wednesday (2.32am AEDT on Thursday), though warns the estimate could be out by up to four-and-a-half hours.

Throughout its 16-year working life, the ERS-2 returned a wealth of information that revolutionised our perspective of Earth and understanding of climate change.

It collected data on Earth's diminishing polar ice, changing land surfaces, rising sea levels, warming oceans, and atmospheric chemistry.

In addition, the ERS-2 was called upon to monitor natural disasters, such as severe floods and earthquakes, in remote parts of the world.

Australian Associated Press