ESA – Give climate some MAGIC

There are times when we could all do with a bit of magic in our lives. And, with the Global Climate Observing System announcement of ‘terrestrial water storage’ as a completely new Essential Climate Variable, the world of climate research and climate crisis response would certainly benefit from a satellite mission called MAGIC. The Global Read More

ESA astronauts help map Europe’s light pollution from space

In brief Most Europeans live under light-polluted skies. The first colour map of Europe at night created with images from the International Space Station shows a sharp increase in light pollution, and the resulting picture is not a pretty one for the environment. In-depth Over the last two decades, astronauts on the Station have witnessed Read More

ESA – Drought causes Yangtze to shrink

Drought causes Yangtze to shrink A record-breaking drought has caused parts of the Yangtze River to dry up – affecting hydropower, shipping routes, limiting drinking water supplies and even revealing previously submerged Buddhist statues. The Yangtze is China’s most important river, providing water to more than 400 million Chinese people. This summer, it has reached Read More

ESA Earth from Space: Snowy Pyrenees

Today, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe. The mountain range forms a natural border between France and Spain with the small, landlocked country of Andorra sandwiched in between. Stretching from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea on the east to the Bay of Biscay (Atlantic Ocean) on the Read More

Deep down temperature shifts give rise to eruptions

The astonishing force of the Tonga volcanic eruption shocked the world, but the fact that this underwater volcano actually erupted came as less of a surprise to geoscientists using satellite data to study changes in the temperature deep below Earth’s surface. The cataclysmic explosion of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai volcano in January is reported to Read More

ENAIRE and the Government of Navarre sign an action protocol to promote R&D in the field of aviation

• The Minister of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, noted that the agreement provides a boost for the implementation of urban air mobility in our country • ENAIRE assumes the management of automated operations that demand technologies, infrastructures and concepts involving simultaneous drone operations in densely populated environments, and alongside manned aircraft Read More

Satellites monitor Mount Etna’s unpredictable behaviour

ESA / Italy’s Mount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano, has recently been on explosive form, with 17 eruptions in less than three months. Instruments onboard three different satellites orbiting Earth have acquired imagery of the eruptions – revealing the intensity of the lava-fountaining eruptive episodes, known as paroxysms. Located on the east coast of Sicily, Read More

407 Day: celebrating Galileo saving lives

ESA Today is 407 Day – the annual campaigning day to spread awareness of the importance of emergency beacons, and the satellites that pick up their signals, including Europe’s Galileo constellation. As well as letting people across the world find their way, Galileo also serves to detect SOS messages and relay them to authorities, contributing Read More