CryoSat Sets New Standard for Measuring Sea Levels

Trying to measure sea levels around rugged coastlines is not always an easy task. ESA’s CryoSat satellite is making a difference with its radar altimeter. Sea level is a very sensitive indicator of climate change, reflecting components of the climate system such as...

Tonga's Beautiful Beaches, Reefs and Lagoons

Tonga's Beautiful Beaches, Reefs and Lagoons

The Kingdom of Tonga in the southern Pacific Ocean has a population dispersed across 36 of its 169 islands, but about 70 percent of the people live on the main island captured in this image from the European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-2A satellite.

Europe's Workhorse Sentinel Ready for Action

Getting the bigger picture on the health of our planet drew another step closer today as Europe’s Sentinel-3A satellite was handed over to Eumetsat for operations. Since it was launched in February, the satellite and its instruments have been meticulously fine-tuned...

CryoSat Reveals Recent Greenland Ice Loss

12 July 2016 — In the most detailed picture to date, information from ESA’s CryoSat satellite reveals how melting ice in Greenland has recently contributed twice as much to sea-level rise as the prior two decades.Between 2011 and 2014, Greenland lost around one...

ESA's Dragon Cooperation with China Extended to 2020

ESA and China have launched the fourth phase of the collaborative Dragon programme in Wuhan City, on the Yangtze River, which recently experienced major floods witnessed by Europe’s Sentinel-1 satellite. ESA and representatives of China’s Ministry of Science and...

Mapping that Sinking Feeling

For a low-lying, densely populated country like the Netherlands, monitoring subsidence is critical. Until recently, tiny displacements in the ground beneath our feet couldn’t be mapped nationally but, thanks to the Sentinel-1 mission, this is now possible. Focusing...

Complex Data Made Easy

12 May 2016 — While the growing volume information from satellites observing Earth offers a unique opportunity for science and applications, it is sometimes difficult to make sure these complex data streams are exploited to their full potential. ESA is addressing...

Ready to Build the Biomass Forest Mission

ESA and Airbus Defence and Space UK signed a €229 million contract on 29 April to build the next Earth Explorer: the Biomass satellite, due to begin its mission in 2021. The satellite will provide global maps of how much carbon is stored in the world’s forests and...

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October Issue 2023