Earth from Space: Valencia
Earth from Space is presented by Kelsea Brennan-Wessels from the ESA Web TV virtual studios. This week, Sentinel-2 takes us over the city of Valencia and its stunning blue coast.
Air quality-monitoring satellite in orbit
The first Copernicus mission dedicated to monitoring our atmosphere, Sentinel‑5P, has been launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.
Africa, classified
From the barren Sahara to lush jungles, the first high-resolution map classifying land cover types on the entire African continent has been released. The map was created using a year’s worth of data from the Sentinel-2A satellite.
Preparing to fly Sentinel-5P
The teams that will fly Sentinel-5P are training intensively for launch, ensuring that everyone knows their job and can react to any emergency. A ‘team of teams’ at ESA’s mission control centre has spent months preparing to assume control of Europe’s next Earth observation mission, and the final weeks before launch have been the most intense.
Mapping the world's forests
Using satellite radar data, scientists have created a global map that quantifies the amount of wood in our forests – a key to understanding Earth’s carbon cycle and, ultimately, climate change.
The heat is on for Sentinel-3B
While the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite is in orbit delivering a wealth of information about our home planet, engineers are putting its twin, Sentinel-3B, through a series of vigorous tests before it is shipped to the launch site next year.
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.
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.
COPERNICUR SENTINEL-1A SATELLITE
ESA engineers have discovered that a solar panel on the Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite was hit by a millimetre-size particle in orbit on 23 August. Thanks to onboard cameras, ground controllers were able to identify the affected area. So far, there has been no effect on the satellite’s routine operations.
SENTINEL-1 PROVIDES NEW INSIGHT INTO ITALY'S EARTHQUAKE
On 24 August, an earthquake struck central Italy, claiming at least 290 lives and causing widespread damage. Satellite images are being used to help emergency aid organisations, while scientists have begun to analyse ground movement.
SENTINEL-3A CONTINUES TO IMPRESS
Launched just three weeks ago, Sentinel-3A carries a suite of cutting-edge instruments to provide systematic measurements of Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere.
THIRD SENTINEL SATELLITE LAUNCHED FOR COPERNICUS
The third ESA-developed satellite carrying four Earth-observing instruments was launched today, ready to provide a ‘bigger picture’ for Europe’s Copernicus environment programme.
NASA, University Study Shows Rising Seas Slowed by Increasing Water on Land
New measurements from a NASA satellite have allowed researchers to identify and quantify, for the first time, how climate-driven increases of liquid water storage on land have affected the rate of sea level rise.
SENTINEL-3 FAMILY GROWS
The signature of a €450 million contract to build two more satellites for the Sentinel-3 mission was celebrated by ESA and Thales Alenia Space of France at an event in Paris yesterday.
  • New satellite to measure plant health


    "With the selection of the FLEX mission, ESA Member States have continued to show their determination to provide essential data to the scientific community to better understand our planet while at the same time serving society. The selection of FLEX is an important milestone in our series of Earth Explorer missions."

    Jan Woerner, ESA’s Director General


  • ES1309 (OPTIMISE-Innovative Tools for Proximal Sensing of Ecophysiological Processes)

     The ES1309 Cost Action network (2014-2018) brought together scientists working in different domains (spectral information systems; remote sensing with unmanned aerial vehicles; reflectance and fluorescence observations) to explore innovative optical tools for remote and proximal sensing of ecophysiological processes.


    As a result of this networking and knowledge sharing three overview papers on sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence were published last week in the OPTIMISE Special Issue in Remote Sensing (IF=3.406). The papers aim to be practical guides with considerations and state-of-the-art overviews on the instrumentation, setups, protocols, post-processing and retrieval of sun-induced fluorescence:


    Pacheco-Labrador et al. (2019)  Sun-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence I: Instrumental Considerations for Proximal Spectroradiometers 


    Remote Sens. 2019, 11(8), 960; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11080960


    Aasen et al. (2019) Sun-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence II: Review of Passive Measurement Setups, Protocols, and Their Application at the Leaf to Canopy Level 


    Remote Sens. 2019, 11(8), 927; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11080927


    Cendrero-Mateo et al. (2019) Sun-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence III: Benchmarking Retrieval Methods and Sensor Characteristics for Proximal Sensing


    Remote Sens. 2019, 11(8), 962; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11080962