ESA Observing the Earth

Earth from Space

Sentinel-2 captures coral bleaching of Great Barrier Reef

Scientists observed the bleaching of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef early this year using satellite images. While capturing these events from space has been difficult in the past, Sentinel-2’s frequent revisits and its resolution makes it possible.

Bringing satellite data to farmers

ESA and BayWa AG are joining forces in an effort to advance the use of satellite data in farming.

Rann of Kutch

Earth from Space

Earth from Space

Earth from Space

Earth from Space

Negribreen on the move

Rapid acceleration of an Arctic glacier over the past year has been detected by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites.

Uintah Basin

Revisit #FutureEO

Earth from Space

SMOS brings Mediterranean salinity into focus

ESA’s SMOS mission maps variations in soil moisture and salt in the surface waters of the open oceans. When the satellite was designed, it was not envisaged that it would be able to measure salinity in smaller seas like the Mediterranean, but SMOS has again surpassed expectations.

EO Science for Society

Future EO

Future EO

Future EO

Amsterdam

Earth from Space

Satellites track Antarctic ice loss over decades

Over two decades of observations by five radar satellites show the acceleration of ice loss of 30 glaciers in Western Palmer Land in the southwest Antarctic Peninsula.

Australia floods

Bering Sea

Earth from Space

EO Open Science

EO Open Science

EO Open Science

Earth as a planet

Earth as a planet

Read up on climate

Read up on climate

When Swarm met Steve

Thanks to social media and the power of citizen scientists chasing the northern lights, a new feature was discovered recently. Nobody knew what this strange ribbon of purple light was, so … it was called Steve.

When Swarm met Steve

Thanks to social media and the power of citizen scientists chasing the northern lights, a new feature was discovered recently. Nobody knew what this strange ribbon of purple light was, so … it was called Steve.

Lake MacKay

Larsen, cracked

Earth from Space

Brazil

Earth from Space

ESA helps faster cleaner shipping

With around 90% of world trade carried by ships, making sure a vessel follows the fastest route has clear economic benefits. By merging measurements from different satellites, ESA is providing key information on ocean currents, which is not only making shipping more efficient but is also helping to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Sentinel-6 mission

Copernicus Sentinel-6

MetOp's Flying Dutchman

Vojvodina

Earth from Space

Copernicus Masters bigger than ever

This year’s Copernicus Masters competition is now open. With prizes totalling more than €1.5 million, the chance to design and launch a small satellite mission and much more, Europe’s leading competition for the novel use of Earth observation has never been so impressive.

Mocoa on the radar

Call for EarthCARE mission advisory group

With ESA’s EarthCARE Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer satellite now entering its ‘production and qualification’ phase, ESA is calling for a new Mission Advisory Group.

Urban monitoring boosted by new data processor

A new processing tool has been developed to bundle information contained in large amounts of satellite data, paving the way for the wealth of Copernicus Sentinel satellite data to be more easily incorporated into online environment-monitoring services.

Alert, Canada

Earth from Space

Climate at your fingertips

Discover our planet’s changing climate through the eyes of satellites with Climate from Space, a new digital book for iPad and Android tablets featuring interactive maps and video interviews with top scientists.

Sentinel-2B timelapse

CryoSat reveals Antarctica in 3D

Around 250 million measurements taken by ESA’s CryoSat over the last six years have been used to create a unique 3D view of Antarctica, offering a snapshot of the undulating surface of this vast ice sheet.

Improving land cover mapping with Sentinel-2

With the pair of Sentinel-2 satellites now in orbit, users are looking ahead to mapping global land cover at 10 m resolution.

Plasma jets

Rome

Satellites shed new light on earthquakes

Satellite radar scans of last year’s earthquake in New Zealand are changing the way we are thinking about earthquake hazards in regions where our planet’s tectonic plates meet.

Earth from Space

Supersonic plasma jets discovered

Information from ESA’s magnetic field Swarm mission has led to the discovery of supersonic plasma jets high up in our atmosphere that can push temperatures up to almost 10 000°C.

Swarm detects asymmetry

Strong electric currents in the upper atmosphere are known to vary according to the season, but ESA’s Swarm mission has discovered that this seasonal variation is not the same in the north and south polar regions.

Watching water

Measuring magnetism

30 years of deforestation

Unravelling Earth’s magnetic field

ESA’s Swarm satellites are seeing fine details in one of the most difficult layers of Earth’s magnetic field to unpick – as well as our planet’s magnetic history imprinted on Earth’s crust.

To the Arctic for CryoSat and beyond

After the relative quiet of the long dark winter months, the Arctic will be a tad busier over the coming weeks as numerous researchers descend on this harsh, yet fragile environment. Their aim is not to disturb its beauty, but to join forces in an all-out effort to measure ice on land and sea.

Glitter helps to monitor ocean waves

The notion of glitter might appear as somewhat frivolous, but scientists are using Sun glitter in images from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission to map the motion of the sea surface.

Atmospheric pollution

Call for Media

MetOp testing

Replay from Banff

Live from Banff

Replay from Banff

Calgary

Etna erupts

Earth from Space

A toast to Sentinel-2B

A ‘toast’ to Copernicus Sentinel-2B as it delivers its first images

Just over a week after being lofted into orbit, the European Union’s Sentinel-2B satellite delivered its first images of Earth, offering a glimpse of the ‘colour vision’ it will provide for the Copernicus environmental monitoring programme.

Kamchatka

Orbiting in sunshine

Following three days of intensive work, mission control today declared the newly launched Sentinel-2B satellite fit and ready for commissioning.

Earth from Space

Managing a mission

Full launch coverage

Revisit #Sentinel2Go

Second ‘colour vision’ satellite for Copernicus launched

The ESA-developed Sentinel-2B satellite was launched today, doubling the coverage of high-resolution optical imaging in the Sentinel-2 mission for the European Union Copernicus environmental monitoring system.

Second ‘colour vision’ satellite for Copernicus launched

The ESA-developed Sentinel-2B satellite was launched today, doubling the coverage of high-resolution optical imaging in the Sentinel-2 mission for the European Union Copernicus environmental monitoring system.

Liftoff replay

Liftoff replay

Sentinel’s last stop

Watch Sentinel-2B launch

Follow #Sentinel2Go

Botswana

Sentinel-2B poised for liftoff

With liftoff just few days away, the next Sentinel satellite for the Copernicus environmental monitoring programme is positioned in the launch tower at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Earth from Space

Sentinels for agriculture

SnapPlanet app wins top prize at Space App Camp

Developers of an app that combines the increasing availability of satellite images with social networking took home the top prize at this year’s Space App Camp in Barcelona.

Call for media

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

Earth from Space

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.