European Space Agency

Traditionally, optical, or ‘camera-like’, satellite images are used to map different crops from space, but a recent study shows that Copernicus Sentinel-1 radar data along with interferometric processing can make crop-type mapping even better. This, in turn, will help improve crop-yield forecasts, production statistics, drought and storm damage assessments, and more. View the full article

Week in images: 15 - 19 February 2021 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Image: Italy’s Mount Etna, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, has erupted twice in less than 48 hours, spewing a fountain of lava and ash into the sky. This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image has been processed to show the lava flow in bright red. View the full article

Image: Italy’s Mount Etna, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, has erupted twice in less than 48 hours, spewing a fountain of lava and ash into the sky. This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image has been processed to show the lava flow in bright red. View the full article

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Lusaka – the capital and largest city of Zambia. View the full article

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Lusaka – the capital and largest city of Zambia. View the full article

Image: A contract signed today secures ESA InCubed co-funding towards the development of Aerospacelab’s Multispectral Companion Mission View the full article

Video: 01:00:00 For the first time in 11 years, ESA is looking for new astronauts to work alongside ESA’s existing astronauts as Europe enters a new era of space exploration. Speakers include Jan Wörner, ESA Director General; Samantha Cristoforetti, ESA astronaut; Tim Peake, ESA astronaut; David Parker, ESA Director of Human and Robotic Exploration; Frank De Winne, ESA Low Earth Orbit Exploration Group Leader, Head of the European Astronaut Centre; Jennifer Ngo-Anh, ESA Research and Payloads Programme Coordinator, Human and Robotic Exploration; Lucy van der Tas, ESA Head of Talent Acquisition. Press briefings in French, German, Italian, Spanish and Dutch, are available in our video gallery. View the full article

Week in images: 08 - 12 February 2021 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

In early 2019, all eyes were fixed on the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica, where a massive iceberg, around the size of Greater London, appeared poised to break off. Almost two years later, the berg is desperately clinging on, although current data indicate calving is imminent. A new crack, spotted in images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel missions, now suggests the potential for calving of multiple bergs. View the full article

Image: As this Copernicus Sentinel-3 image captured today shows, the Netherlands remains pretty much snow-covered thanks to days of sub-zero temperatures following the country’s first major snowstorm in a decade. View the full article

Image: Competitors of the Vendée Globe sailing race are now nearing the finishing point, but while they were near the treacherous iceberg-infested waters of the Southern Ocean they remained relatively safe thanks to satellite observations. View the full article

Image: Sardinia, the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, is featured in this false-colour image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. View the full article

Video: 00:03:23 This week's edition of the Earth from Space programme features a Copernicus Sentinel-2 image of Sardinia, the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. See also Sardinia, Italy to download the image. View the full article

Video: 00:02:50 In this week's edition of the Earth from Space programme, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the Tanezrouft Basin – one of the most desolate parts of the Sahara Desert. See also Tanezrouft Basin to download the image. View the full article

Video: 00:03:38 In this week's edition of the Earth from Space programme, the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission takes us over Lapland, the largest and northernmost region of Finland, just in time for Christmas. See also Rovaniemi, Lapland to download the image. View the full article

Press Release N° 33–2020 On Tuesday, November 17, Arianespace announced the loss of the Vega VV17 mission, which was carrying two payloads, SEOSAT-Ingenio, an Earth-science observation satellite for the European Space Agency (ESA), on behalf of Spain's Center for Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), and TARANIS for France’s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES). The first three stages functioned nominally until the ignition of the AVUM upper stage, eight minutes after liftoff. At that time, a degraded trajectory was detected, followed by a loss of control of the vehicle and the subsequent loss of the mission. View the full article

Video: 00:02:06 The giant A-68A iceberg could strike land this month – wreaking havoc near the waters of the South Georgia Island. Since its ‘birth’ in 2017, the iceberg has travelled thousands of kilometres from the Larsen C ice shelf, in Antarctica, and now lies around 120 km from South Georgia. If it remains on its current path, the iceberg could ground in the shallow waters offshore – threatening wildlife, including penguins and seals. Satellite missions are being used to track the berg on its journey over the past three years. The Copernicus Sentinel-1 radar mission, with its ability to see through clouds and the dark, has been instrumental in mapping the polar regions in winter. Video credits: Animation: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017-18), processed by Swansea University-A. Luckman Radar images: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO A-68A map: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA; Antarctic Iceberg Tracking Database Sentinel-1 animations: ESA/ATG Medialab Penguin footage: Getty Images View the full article

Information for all visitors to ESA sites Coronavirus measures for hosted meetings and visitors View the full article

Meteosat Third Generation View the full article

ESA's Orion blog Updates on Artemis and the European Service Module for Orion View the full article

Copernicus Sentinel-2 View the full article

Copernicus Sentinel-1 View the full article