ESA Observing the Earth

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Tracking ice

Hitching a ride with Sentinel-1B

The Sentinel-1B satellite is now fuelled and ready to join the Soyuz rocket that will take it into orbit on 22 April at 21:02 GMT (23:02 CEST). Once in orbit, it will provide radar images of Earth for Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring programme.

Ready for orbit

Bernese Alps

Bernese Alps

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Sentinel-3A feels the heat

Despite only being in orbit a matter of weeks, Sentinel-3A has already delivered some impressive first images. With the thermal-infrared channels now turned on, the satellite completes its set of firsts with a view of ocean features off the coast of Namibia.

Sentinel-3: even better

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Australia ensured access to Sentinel data

ESA and Australia'snational geological survey, Geoscience Australia, today agreed to cooperate to ensure data from the EU’s Sentinel satellites are accessible in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.

Australia ensured access to Sentinel data

ESA and Australia's national geological survey, Geoscience Australia, today agreed to cooperate to ensure data from the EU’s Sentinel satellites are accessible in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.

Etosha

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Radar vision

Forest damage

Yuma chequerboard

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Sentinel data wanted

ESA has agreed with NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US Geological Survey (USGS) to make data available to them from the European Sentinel satellites.

Cyprus

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Preparing for more radar vision

The Sentinel-1B satellite has arrived in French Guiana to be prepared for liftoff on 22 April. It will join its identical twin, Sentinel-1A, in orbit to provide more radar views of Earth for Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring effort.

Sentinel-3A continues to impress

The three instruments on the Sentinel-3A satellite are now offering a tantalising glimpse of what’s in store for Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring effort. The latest images, which feature Europe and Antarctica, come from the sensor that records Earth’s radiant energy.

Earth from Space

Earth from Space

Sentinel-3A rides the waves

Following the first impressive images from Sentinel-3A, this latest Copernicus satellite is now showing us how another of its instruments, an altimeter, will track sea-level change.

Puzzle of Utah

Focus on Gabon forests for Biomass

With deforestation accounting for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions, satellite observations have an important role to play in mapping this changing ecosystem. ESA is therefore going to great lengths to make sure a new sensor will live up to its promise.

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Sentinel-3A timelapse

Sentinel-3A first images

First views of Earth from Sentinel-3A

Just two weeks after launch, the latest Sentinel satellite has offered a taster of what it will provide for the EU’s Copernicus programme.

Images at lightspeed

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Earth from Space

Keeping transport systems on track

Operators of UK transport networks are the first who are set to benefit from Live Land, a satellite-based land monitoring system developed through ESA. 

Eastern Desert

ESA and SAP cooperate in using satellite data

ESA and the software company SAP have signed a letter of intent to develop innovative approaches for the quick and efficient processing of large amounts of Earth observation data through access to processing platforms.

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Earth from Space

Nonstop LEOP full stop

Working around the clock, mission teams have brought Sentinel-3A through the critical ‘launch and early orbit phase’ in just 49 hours, much earlier than planned and a record for such a complex satellite. 

World’s corals under threat

The current El Niño weather phenomenon is taking its toll on coral reefs, prompting a field campaign to the middle of the Pacific Ocean to explore how Europe’s Sentinel-2 satellite might be able to quantify the damage on a large scale.

Sentinel-3 and the ocean carbon conundrum

Each year, about a quarter of the carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere ends up in the ocean, but how it happens is still not fully understood. The Sentinel-3A satellite is poised to play an important role in shedding new light on this exchange.

And the award goes to…

New challenges and opportunities arise as Europe’s Copernicus programme continues to launch the Sentinel satellites, converting their data into accessible products that can benefit citizens. The Space App Camps give developers the chance to deliver data from these and other satellites to the everyday user, via mobile apps.

Dancing with Aurora

French synergy

Sentinel-3A dances with northern lights

A surprising view of Sentinel-3A darting through the green flicker of the aurora borealis on its way into orbit has been captured on video from a hilltop in northern Finland.

Climate Service workshop

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App Camp begins

Third Sentinel in orbit

Third Sentinel satellite launched for Copernicus

The third ESA-developed satellite carrying four Earth-observing instruments was launched today, ready to provide a ‘bigger picture’ for Europe’s Copernicus environment programme.

Revisit the launch

Liftoff replay

Liftoff replay

Launch replay

Eye on oceans

All dressed up with somewhere to go

Yesterday, a ‘team of teams’ working at ESA’s control centre conducted a final rehearsal for tomorrow’s launch of Sentinel-3A.

Follow the launch event

Living Planet doors open

Sentinel-3A poised for liftoff

With four days to liftoff, the next Sentinel satellite for Copernicus is now on the launch pad at the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia.

The rocket will be fuelled the day before the launch – set for 16 February at 17:57 GMT (18:57 CET).

The Sentinel family

Madrid

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Sentinel-3 family grows

The signature of a €450 million contract to build two more satellites for the Sentinel-3 mission was celebrated by ESA and Thales Alenia Space of France at an event in Paris yesterday.

Nature valued from space

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Antarctic ice safety band at risk

Antarctica is surrounded by huge ice shelves. New research, which includes using data from satellites such as ESA’s heritage Envisat, has revealed that there is a critical point where these shelves act as a safety band, holding back the ice that flows towards the sea. If lost, it could be the point of no return.

Antarctic ice safety band at risk

Antarctica is surrounded by huge ice shelves. New research, using ice velocity data from satellites such as ESA’s heritage Envisat, has revealed that there is a critical point where these shelves act as a safety band, holding back the ice that flows towards the sea. If lost, it could be the point of no return.

Antarctic ice safety band at risk

Antarctica is surrounded by huge ice shelves. New research, using ice velocity data from satellites such as ESA’s heritage Envisat, has revealed that there is a critical point where these shelves act as a safety band, holding back the ice that flows towards the sea. If lost, it could be the point of no return.

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Proba-V eyes Bolivia’s vanishing lake

Monitoring Earth’s surface every day, ESA’s Proba-V minisatellite has had a ringside seat as the second largest lake in Bolivia gradually dried up. Lake Poopó has now been declared fully evaporated.

Mission teams prepare for critical days

Moments after Sentinel-3A separates from its rocket, a team of European mission control specialists will assume control, shepherding the new spacecraft through its critical first days in space.

Colours of Sweden

Colours of Sweden

Colours of Sweden

Earth from Space

Sentinel-3A fully tanked

With the launch of Sentinel-3A confirmed for 16 February, preparations for liftoff are charging full speed ahead. The tricky task of fuelling the satellite has now been ticked off the ‘to do list’ and the propulsion team is already decontaminating their equipment before returning home.

Sentinel-3A fully tanked

With the launch of Sentinel-3A confirmed for 16 February, preparations for liftoff are charging full speed ahead. The tricky task of fuelling the satellite has now been ticked off the ‘to do list’ and the propulsion team is already decontaminating their equipment before returning home.

Sentinel-3A fully tanked

With the launch of Sentinel-3A confirmed for 16 February, preparations for liftoff are charging full speed ahead. The tricky task of fuelling the satellite has now been ticked off the ‘to do list’ and the propulsion team is already decontaminating their equipment before returning home.

Call for Media

Call for media

World Wetlands Day

Call for media

SMOS gets help from Tibet

Ground measurements are essential for making sure that satellites deliver accurate information about our changing world. Although the Tibetan Plateau may not seem the obvious place to take such readings, this remote location is being used to check on ESA’s SMOS satellite.

Sierra Leone Estuary

Earth from Space

Earth from Space

Colours of Persia

Colours of Bahrain

Meet Sentinel-3

Meet Sentinel-3

Earth from Space

Earth from Space

Meet Sentinel-3

Rise and shine for Sentinel-3A

Following the Christmas break, the Sentinel-3A satellite has been taken out of its storage container and woken up as the campaign to prepare it for launch resumes at the Russian Plesetsk cosmodrome. Liftoff is set for 4 February.

Rise and shine for Sentinel-3A

Following the Christmas break, the Sentinel-3A satellite has been taken out of its storage container and woken up as the campaign to prepare it for launch resumes at the Russian Plesetsk cosmodrome. Liftoff is set for 4 February. UPDATE 27 January: new launch date is 16 February.

Rise and shine for Sentinel-3A

Following the Christmas break, the Sentinel-3A satellite has been taken out of its storage container and woken up as the campaign to prepare it for launch resumes at the Russian Plesetsk cosmodrome. Liftoff is set for 4 February. UPDATE 21 January: launch likely to be pushed into second half of February.

Canada breaks the ice with Sentinel-1 data

How can access to Sentinel data increase Canada’s ability to offer improved information on sea ice?

Mongolian marvel

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Shifting ice

Deal sealed for new Sentinel-1 satellites

ESA has ensured the continuation of the Sentinel-1 Earth observation satellite series for Europe’s Copernicus environmental programme by ordering two more satellites.

The €400 million contract was signed today with Thales Alenia Space of Italy to build Sentinel-1C and -1D.

Ice matters

The satellite age has revolutionised our understanding of Earth, giving us accurate information to help critical agreements on climate change such as at the current COP21 conference in Paris. Diminishing polar ice is one of the most visible indicators of change, but how much have we learnt over the last decades?

Talking climate

French portrait

Talking climate

Earth from Space

Earth from Space

Talking climate

Talking climate

The future of Earth

Talking climate

Talking climate

Watching wetlands

Dutch mosaic

Sentinel-3A taking final steps to launch

After an eventful journey to Russia, by plane, lorry and train, the Sentinel-3A satellite is safe and sound in the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia, for lift-off next month. 

ESA and World Bank hand-in-hand

Today at the COP21 Climate Summit in Paris, the World Bank and ESA signed an agreement on using information from Earth observation satellites in support of sustainable development.

Earth from Space

Earth from Space