On Feb. 16, 2016, the European Space Agency's much-anticipated Sentinel-3A satellite was successfully launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia.
Sentinel-3: A New Window on the Changing State of Our Oceans
Climate change is much discussed, says Dr Simon Keogh of the Met Office, and to inform the conversation the Met Office uses historical scientific data including sea-surface temperature records, based on data from the Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) series of...
Proba-V Eyes Bolivia's Vanishing Lake
8 February 2016 — 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. The three 100-m resolution Proba-V images...
ESA Selects Airbus Defence and Space for Two New Sentinel-2 Satellites
Airbus Defence and Space, the world’s second-largest space company, has signed a contract, worth around 285 million euros with the European Space Agency (ESA) to deliver two further optical satellites for the European Copernicus programme. As part of the Sentinel-2...
Launch of the First Satellite in the SpaceDataHighway Programme
EDRS-A, the first relay satellite in the SpaceDataHighway programme (also called EDRS), will be launched to geostationary orbit on 28 January 2016 (Baikonour time). The SpaceDataHighway will provide high speed laser communications in space of up to 1.8 Gigabit per...
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. This latest satellite for Europe’s...
ESA Funded A-SeNS Enables Port-Log Data to be Captured by Satellites
The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is a tracking system used by ships and vessel traffic services for identifying and locating vessels by electronically exchanging data with other nearby vessels, shore stations and satellites. As well as providing information...
Deal Sealed for New Sentinel-1 Satellites
December 15, 2015 — 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...
ESSC Statement on Climate Change
The European Space Sciences Committee (ESSC) supports the Article (2) agreement on climate change of the Declaration of the '2015 Budapest World Science Forum on the enabling power of science' urges such a universal agreement aiming at stabilising atmospheric...
ESA and World Bank Hand-in-Hand
December 4, 2015 — 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. The World Bank, located in Washington DC, USA, is one of the...
