ESA Observing the Earth

Colour vision

Lake Success

Two radar eyes are better than one

A novel airborne experiment over the flat agricultural landscape of the Netherlands recently simulated, for the first time, images that could be taken by radar satellites orbiting in tandem.

Earth from Space

What is Sentinel-2?

MetOp's trial by vacuum

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UNEP outlook

Ötztal Alps

Sentinels warn of dangerous ice crack

Following the appearance of a large crack in the ice shelf close to the Halley VI research station in Antarctica, information from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites helped to decide to close the base temporarily.

Sentinels warn of dangerous ice crack

Following the appearance of a large crack in the ice shelf close to the Halley VI research station in Antarctica, information from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites helped to decide to close the base temporarily.

Earth from Space

Earth from Space

Drought to overflow

Sentinel-2 teams prepare for space

Going to space is never routine, and Sentinel-2 mission controllers are leaving nothing to chance as they prepare for the critical days following next month’s liftoff.

Fuel Sentinel-2B: done

As liftoff day draws closer, the Sentinel-2B ‘to do list’ list is shrinking as tasks are ticked off, including the tricky process of fuelling the satellite. And, even despite having to do a few unexpected jobs, everything is on track for launch.

Fuel Sentinel-2B: done

As liftoff day draws closer, the Sentinel-2B 'to do' list is shrinking as tasks are ticked off, including the tricky process of fuelling the satellite. And, even despite having to do a few unexpected jobs, everything is on track for launch.

Farmers to benefit from ESA–BASF collaboration

With farming an exacting science, ESA and the world’s leading chemical company, BASF, have joined forces to see how data from satellites can best serve the agricultural community.

Sicilian snow

Earth from Space

CryoSat reveals lake outbursts beneath Antarctic ice

A novel way of using ESA’s CryoSat mission has revealed how lakes beneath Thwaites Glacier drained into the Amundsen Sea – potentially the largest such outflow ever reported in this region of West Antarctica.

Satellites monitor landslide in the Alps

Climate change-driven glacial melt is causing landslides in alpine regions. Data from the Sentinel-1 satellite mission are being inserted into a new cloud computing system to monitor such hazards globally.

Musa Bay

Earth from Space

Botswana wetlands

Wind satellite heads for final testing

The road to realising ESA’s Aeolus mission may have been long and bumpy, but developing novel space technology is, by its very nature, challenging. With the satellite now equipped with its revolutionary instrument, the path ahead is much smoother as it heads to France to begin the last round of tests before being shipped to the launch site at the end of the year.

Larsen crack

Western Texas

Earth from Space

Big Island

Earth from Space

#Sentinel2Go launch

Colour vision

Saint Petersburg

Earth from Space

Sentinel-2B launch preparations off to a flying start

Some of us may be easing ourselves gently into the New Year, but for the team readying Sentinel-2B for liftoff on 7 March it’s full steam ahead.

Weather watchtower

Weather watchtower

Earth from Space

Earth from Space

Tian Shan

Earth from Space

Changing landscape

There’s a jet stream in our core

We would normally associate jet streams with the weather but, thanks to ESA’s magnetic field mission, scientists have discovered a jet stream deep below Earth’s surface – and it’s speeding up.

Satellite cousins have ice covered

Although not designed to deliver information on ice, ESA’s Earth Explorer SMOS satellite can detect thin sea-ice. Since its cousin, CryoSat, is better at measuring thicker ice scientists have found a way of using these missions together to yield an even clearer picture of the changing Arctic.

Seville

Earth from Space

Siles subsides

Reissued: call for Earth Explorer 9 proposals

Scientists involved in Earth observation have another opportunity to submit a proposal for ESA’s next Earth Explorer satellite mission.

Now available

Satellites track variations in Antarctica’s glacial retreat

Five satellites spanning two decades have revealed variations in the timing and pace of glacial retreat in West Antarctica. Some glaciers’ thinning spreads up to three times faster than on neighbouring tributaries, and was offset by decades.

Wolfe Creek

Earth from Space

Nordic entrepreneurial spirit boosted by space

More than 17 000 people converged on Helsinki in Finland this week to create businesses – and ESA was there to add its space expertise.   

Nordic entrepreneurial spirit boosted by space

More than 17 000 people converged on Helsinki in Finland this week to create businesses – and ESA was there to add its space expertise.   

Switzerland

Sharing Earth observation satellite data to help understand our planet

Since the launch of the first Earth-observing satellites in the 1970s, numerous missions from international space organisations have taken to the sky. Today, decades of data are helping scientists to build a better picture of changes to our planet.

Earth from Space

Earth from Space

Arctic sea-ice growth slower than ever

ESA’s CryoSat satellite has found that the Arctic has one of the lowest volumes of sea ice of any November, matching record lows in 2011 and 2012. Early winter growth of ice in the Arctic has been about 10% lower than usual.

Arctic freeze slows down

ESA’s CryoSat satellite has found that the Arctic has one of the lowest volumes of sea ice of any November, matching record lows in 2011 and 2012. Early winter growth of ice in the Arctic has been about 10% lower than usual.

To catch an entrepreneur

Now is the time to start up. Businesses, providers and enablers are clamouring to get their start-up support messages out there.

To catch an entrepreneur

Now is the time to start up. Businesses, providers and enablers are clamouring to get their start-up support messages out there.

Shaping the future

Satellites confirm sinking of San Francisco tower

The Sentinel-1 satellites have shown that the Millennium Tower skyscraper in the centre of San Francisco is sinking by a few centimetres a year. Studying the city is helping scientists to improve the monitoring of urban ground movements, particularly for subsidence hotspots in Europe.

Japan

Fast forest views

Earth from Space

Start of service for Europe’s SpaceDataHighway

The European Data Relay System began servicing Europe’s Earth observing Copernicus programme yesterday, transferring observations in quasi-real time using cutting-edge laser technology. 

Early warning from space of homes on the slide

It was a literal property crash: multiple homes in the Cármenes del Mar resort on the south coast of Spain were engulfed in a landslide, leaving families homeless. But satellite archives offer early warning of such events – and now more accessible than ever before thanks to a new cloud computing platform.

Earth from Space

Earth from Space

New map offers precise snapshot of human life on Earth

A landmark global map showing nearly every human settlement on Earth is now available to researchers. Compared to previous mapping efforts, the satellite-based ‘Global Urban Footprint’ dataset shows not just urban centres, but also tiny rural hamlets.

Gibson Desert

Earth from Space

Data release

Sentinel sees us

Probing Greenland’s ice sheet for future satellites

With a helicopter the sole feature on the vast expanse of ice and her only way back to warmth and safety, polar scientist Anna Hogg must have thought, “What on Earth am I doing out here?” as she set to taking ice samples.

Farewell to Sentinel-2B

Just weeks before Sentinel-2B is packed up and sent to French Guiana for its launch next March, media representatives and specialists got one last look at the second satellite for Europe’s Copernicus programme. 

Space agencies combine efforts for space hydrology

Heads of space agencies are meeting today in Marrakesh, Morocco at the COP22 climate change summit to reaffirm their commitment to a coordinated approach for monitoring Earth’s climate, with particular focus on the water cycle.

Refurbished GEOSS portal now online

A new and improved version of the GEOSS web portal is ready to provide users with faster, more intuitive access to the ever-growing wealth of diverse Earth observation resources worldwide.

Virunga Mountains

Earth from Space

Call for Media

Iceberg patrol gains faster updates from orbit

The international iceberg patrol service set up after the sinking of the Titanic is now able to track drifting ice from orbit more swiftly through ESA-backed cloud computing.

ESA and Asian Development Bank join forces

ESA and the Asian Development Bank have signed an agreement to collaborate over the next five years to use information from space to support sustainable development.

ESA and SAP launch new service for analysing satellite data

ESA and the software company SAP have announced the Earth Observation Analysis service for the quick, easy consumption of Earth observation satellite data according to customer needs.

ESA at COP22 climate change summit

The COP22 climate change summit opened today in Marrakesh, Morocco. ESA is joining international partners to report on the status of space-based climate research and propose improvements to how climate data are collected and distributed.

Deal signed for FLEX’s fluorescence finder

ESA has selected Italian company Leonardo to build the main instrument for the upcoming FLEX satellite to study the health of Earth’s vegetation.

Explore Morocco

Explore Morocco

Explore Morocco

ESA and the Vatican join forces to save data in the digital age

At a ceremony held in Vatican City today, ESA and the Vatican Apostolic Library have agreed to continue their years-long cooperation on the preservation, management and exploitation of archived information.

Pío XI

Sentinel satellites reveal east–west shift in Italian quake

New information on the effects of the 30 October earthquake that struck central Italy continues to emerge as scientists analyse radar scans from satellites.

Earth from Space

Italy on the move

Swarm reveals why satellites lose track

Satellite engineers have been puzzling over why GPS navigation systems on low-orbiting satellites like ESA’s Swarm sometimes black out when they fly over the equator between Africa and South America. Thanks to Swarm, it appears ‘thunderstorms’ in the ionosphere are to blame.

Keep an automatic eye on seismic zones

The Copernicus Sentinel-1 twin radar satellites combined with cloud computing are monitoring Europe’s earthquake zones by searching for ground shifts as small as a millimetre. 

Putorana Plateau

Earth from Space

Sentinel Hub wins Copernicus Masters prize

A cloud-based web service that allows non-expert users to browse, process and distribute large amounts of Earth observation data takes home this year’s Copernicus Masters grand prize.

Fish farms guided by Sentinels and the cloud

A new service harnesses three decades of satellite observations of coastal zones made available through a cloud-based system to provide a rich information source for fisheries, one of our fastest growing sources of food.

Kathmandu

Earth from Space

Earth’s most active volcanoes on satellite watch

As hundreds flee lava and ash spewed from Mexico’s Colima volcano, its continuing eruption is being tracked not only by ground instruments but also from space. Starting last month, Colima is one of 22 active volcanoes worldwide being monitored by satellites.

Earth from Space

Sentinel-3A Earth colour data released

Today, the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite has taken another step towards being fully ‘operational’ as the first data from its Ocean and Land Colour Instrument are made available to monitor the health of our planet.

SMOS on speed

While ESA’s water mission was built to advance our understanding of Earth, it continues to show how well it’s suited to delivering information for numerous applications that improve everyday life. Taking this a step further, soil moisture data products are now available within three hours of measurement, which is essential for many applications.

Vatnajökull

Earth from Space

The way ahead

Earth from Space

Eye of the storm

What are TEPs?

Shanghai

Business in the ever-changing digital world

In an era of profound digital transformation, business leaders and IT experts are convening at ESA’s mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, today for the first SAP Digital Leaders’ Summit.

Earth from Space

Sustainable cities

Magnetic oceans and electric Earth

Oceans might not be thought of as magnetic, but they make a tiny contribution to our planet’s protective magnetic shield. Remarkably, ESA’s Swarm satellites have not only measured this extremely faint field, but have also led to new discoveries about the electrical nature of inner Earth.