View allAll Photos Tagged Copernicus
This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image features the diverse landscape surrounding Monterrey, the capital of the northeast state of Nuevo León, Mexico.
This image, acquired on 5 March 2023, shows a region which combines mountain ranges, agricultural plains, arid areas, as well as densely populated urban centres.
The metropolitan area of Monterrey, visible in shades of grey in the centre of the image, is the second largest in Mexico with around five million inhabitants. It is crossed by the Santa Catarina River, which is usually fed by flowing underground water, although the river was predominantly dry when this image was acquired.
Monterrey is 540 m above sea level and is nestled at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the folded mountain range that can be seen in the bottom-left of the image.
The Cumbres de Monterrey National Park lies in the northern part of the Sierra Madre Oriental and includes the famous Cerro de la Silla (or Saddle Mountain), which dominates Monterrey’s skyline. The park is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and provides approximately 50% of the water consumed in Monterrey and its metropolitan area.
The grey area visible west of the park is the city of Saltillo, the capital of the Mexican state of Coahuila. Saltillo is one of the most industrialised areas in the country and, thanks to its dry and cool climate, has become a popular holiday destination.
The region south of the park appears mostly arid, with only a few centre-pivot irrigation fields visible in the brown areas in the bottom of the image. On the contrary, numerous agricultural areas stand out in the right of the image, with many square-shaped fields thickening along the course of small rivers and canals.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
[EXPLORED on 05MAY2020]
Telescope: Celestron 11 - CGEM
Filter #2c
Televue Powermate 2x
Camera: ASI178MM
Moon phase details at 4 May 2020
Moon Phase details
PhaseWaxing gibbous
Illumination82.04% Visible
Ris/Set03:16 PM / 03:08 AM
Moon Age10.65 Days
Moon Angle0.55
Moon Distance364,101.41 km
QHY5L-II + C8 f/10
used 200/500 frames recorded in EzPlanetary, alignment, stacking e wavelets in Registax6.
Hotel Copernicus - a historic building presently housing a 29-room hotel with two apartments. Copernicus Hotel is located on Kanonicza, the city’s oldest street. For centuries, this building was a part of the cathedral chapel and hosted the intellectual and financial elite of Krakow. It owes its name to the famous Polish astronomer Nicolas Copernicus, who was one of the guests of the house. He, too, must have admired the precious polychrome paintings and inscriptions dating from 1500 and, in the evening, the flaming sunsets that seem to set the city alight.
Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D from Venus Optics, full frame manual lens (does not show in EXIF)
August 18, 2021
The crater pair of Copernicus (center bottom) and Eratosthenes (center right) become prominent in the Moon's middle latitudes in the days following the First Quarter Moon. Here they are seen in high angle light, their floors fully or nearly fully illuminated. There is enough shadow for the multitude of secondary craterlets surrounding them to be detected. These can be seen to radiate deeply into Mare Imbrium, the broad lava plain that fills the upper third of the image.
Separating Copernicus and Mare Imbrium are the peaks of the Montes Carpatus. These mountains are remnants of the high rim of the Imbrium Impact Basin.
On the bottom left edge of the photo lies a small cup-shaped crater named Hortensius. Just above this small crater a cluster of small bumps can be seen. These low mounds are lunar volcanoes, the Hortensius Domes. Look closely and the summit calderas of some can be seen. These humble mounds are the lunar equivalent of the large shield volcanoes (e.g., Mauna Loa) seen on the Earth.
This photo is a stack of the best 30% of 5369 video frames.
Video capture software: FireCapture
Stacking software: AutoStakkert! 3
Wavelets-processing: Registax 6
Final buff: Photoshop CC 2021.
Celestron EdgeHD8, 2032mm focal length, f/10
ZWO ASI 290MM planetary camera
Celestron Advanced VX Equatorial Mount
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Carrara – an Italian city known especially for its world-famous marble.
Carrara lies along the Carrione River, in northern Tuscany, around 130 km from Florence. It can be seen just above the centre of the image, stretching into the mountains.
The city is famous for its white or blue-grey marble, called Carrara, taken from nearby quarries in the Apuan Alps, a mountain range that stretches for approximately 55 km and reaching around 2000 m high. What appears as snow cover on the rugged mountains is actually bright white marble, contrasting with Tuscany’s lush green vegetation.
Carrara marble is one of the most prestigious marbles in the world, with its quarries producing more marble than any other place on Earth. The unique stone was formed by calcite-rich shells left behind by marine organisms when they die. When water bodies evaporate, the deposited remains form limestone, and when buried under multi-tonne layers of rock, the intense heat and pressure cause the limestone to metamorphose into marble.
The special quality of the Carrara marble has made it a popular resource for many famous sculptures, including Michelangelo’s Pietà, and has been used for some of the most remarkable buildings in Ancient Rome, including the Pantheon and Trajan’s Column.
Also featured in this summery image from Sentinel-2 are the towns of Forte dei Marmi, Pietrasanta, Lido di Camaiore and Viareggio. Marina di Carrara, southwest of the city, is a beach resort on the Ligurian Sea, with port facilities for transporting and shipping marble. The most popular resorts and beaches nearby are those at Marina di Carrara and Marina di Massa, both of which become very crowded during the summer, especially with Italian holidaymakers. La Spezia, a major naval base and the second largest city in the Liguria region, is visible in the top-left of the image.
Copernicus Sentinel-2 is based on a constellation of two identical satellites in the same orbit, 180° apart for optimal coverage and data delivery. Together they cover all Earth’s land surfaces, large islands, inland and coastal waters every five days at the equator.
This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The crater is 93 km wide and 3.8 km deep. The highest central peak is 1.2 km high.
2020-04-03-0342_2_lapl4_ap1287
First video capture with the Sky-Watcher Esprit 120mm ED Triplet APO Refractor. I’m very impressed with this telescope and can’t wait to try out some open clusters. This is Copernicus crater on the moon.
Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120mm ED Triplet APO Refractor, Celestron CGEM-DX mount, ZWO ASI290MC camera, Televue 2.5x Powermate, best 4,000 of 8,000 frames. Image Date: January 26, 2018. Location: The Dark Side Observatory in Weatherly, PA.
Panorama from the craters Copernicus & Eratosthenes (left) and along the Montes Apenninus
3 panel mosaic shot from London on 26th March 2018
Celestron Edge HD11 scope, ASI174MM camera, Televue 2.5x Powermate & 685nm IR pass filter
Processed in AS!2, Registax6 & Photoshop CC
‘Earth moving, Sun stopping’ astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus, revolutionised our understanding of the Universe: tiny.cc/cfzdkz
This shot was taken with Raynox DCR-250 on Nikon Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.8G. The Sun photo in the background was taken by NASA: tiny.cc/kczdkz Special thanks to my beloved wife for lending me her pendant 😘
AviStack 2.0 (509 frames, full auto processing and wavelets in Registax6)
C8, QHY5L-II monochromatic, Super Polaris mount
Although Crater Copernicus and its southern ejecta field are the dominant features in this image, it is about the Apollo 12 and 14 landing sites. Apollo 12 landed in Mare Insularium, and Apollo 14 just outside of Fra Mauro's north rim. (Rükl 41)
ZWO ASI178MC
Meade LX850 (12" f/8)
Losmandy G11
2000 frames captured in Firecapture at 4.25ms at 144 gain and 55% histogram
Best 75% stacked in Autostakkert!
Wavelet sharpened in Registax
Finishing in Photoshop - colors are slightly saturated.
Central section of the terminator on the moon when 9.2 days past New Moon and phase at 69% at a distance of 231,973 miles. Photo taken with a 155mm refractor, 4x barlow and a Nikon D810 camera.
A triple central peak, terraced rim, and bright system of rays mark the crater Copenicus, a dominating feature of this morning's third-quarter moon.
This is one of several lunar photographs I'm posting to my Sky and Space album this week to commemorate the July 20 Apollo 11 landing fifty-three years ago. It is a choice video frame captured via eyepiece projection from a 25cm Newtonian reflecting telescope.
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over part of the Namib Desert in western Namibia. At 55 million years old, Namib is considered the oldest desert on Earth.
In this image, captured on 27 October 2019, a large portion of the Namib-Naukluft National Park is visible. The park covers an area of almost 50 000 sq km and encompasses part of the Namib Desert and the Naukluft Mountains to the east. Straight, white lines visible in the right of the image are roads that connect the Namib-Naukluft National Park with other parts of Namibia.
The park’s main attraction is Sossusvlei – a large salt and clay pan visible in the centre of the image. The bright white floors of the pan contrasts with the rust-red dunes that surround it.
Sossusvlei acts as an endorheic basin for the Tsauchab River – an ephemeral river flowing from the east. Owing to the dry conditions in the Namib Desert, the river rarely flows this far and the pan usually remains dry most years. In the past, water from the Tsauchab has reached the Atlantic coast a further 60 km away.
The dunes in this area are some of the highest in the world. The tallest, nicknamed ‘big daddy,’ stands at around 325 m. The dunes facing the river valley are called star dunes and are formed from winds blowing in multiple directions, creating long ‘arms’ that point into the valley from both sides.
These dunes contrast with the saffron-coloured dunes visible in the Namib Sand Sea, just south of Soussusvlei. The sand sea consists of two dune seas, one on top of another. The foundation of the ancient sand sea has existed for at least 21 million years, while the younger sand on top has existed for around 5 million years. The dunes here are formed by the transportation of materials from thousands of kilometres away, carried by river, ocean current and wind.
The Namib Sand Sea is the only coastal desert in the world to contain large dune fields influenced by fog – the primary source of water for the Namib Sand Sea. Haze is visible in the bottom left of the image, the last leftovers of fog coming from the Atlantic Ocean.
Copernicus Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission to supply the coverage and data delivery needed for Europe’s Copernicus programme.
This image is featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image highlights the colours of autumn over the southern part of New York state in the US.
The different shades of brown in the image, which is from November 2022, capture the colours of autumn. This is particularly evident in the upper part of the image where mountains and forests are typical of the region.
New York is one of the most populous states in the US. Here, we see the area surrounding the Hudson River in the top left, through New York City following the river southwards, to the Atlantic shores of Long Island, which dominates the centre of the image. Long Island lies almost parallel to the southern shore of Connecticut, separated by Long Island Sound, a 145-km-long inlet of the North Atlantic Ocean.
The lighter tones of blue in the waters of Long Island Sound and Great South Bay – the lagoon on the southern shore of the island – show sediment shaped like eddies owing to surface currents.
Visible as a grey area to the west of Long Island is New York City. It comprises five boroughs, with the island of Manhattan in the centre bound by the Hudson, East and Harlem rivers. The meeting of the Hudson and East Rivers has formed one of the world’s largest natural harbours.
Separated from New York by the Hudson River, part of New Jersey is also visible in the bottom left of the image.
Zooming in, a number of iconic places can be spotted, including the 340-hectare green rectangle of Central Park at the centre of Manhattan Island, the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the three connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan, and Liberty Island, with the famous Statue of Liberty, which is off the southern tip of Manhattan.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2022), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The prominent crater Copernicus taken with a ZWOASI224MC planetary camera using a Celestron C-8 cassegrain telescope.
This image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission on 10 October, shows the new flow of lava from the volcano erupting on the Spanish island of La Palma.
This Sentinel-2 image has been processed in true colour, using the shortwave infrared channel to highlight the lava flow. The Sentinel-2 mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites, each carrying an innovative wide swath high-resolution multispectral imager with 13 spectral bands for monitoring changes in Earth’s land and vegetation.
The Volcanology Institute of the Canary Islands (Involcan) stated that the lava flow, with temperatures up to 1240°C, destroyed the few remaining buildings still standing north of the Todoque neighbourhood.
Read full story: La Palma volcano: How satellites help us monitor eruptions
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Lunar mosaic from 3 stitched shots taken with a ZWO ASI120MC camera on a Skywatcher 80ED 750mm FL refractor.
Images processed by stacking in Registax 6, stitching in Microsoft ICE and final tweaking in Corel Paintshop Pro
The Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission captured this impressive shot of the almost cloud-free Scandinavian Peninsula on 20 March 2022.
The Scandinavian Peninsula, which comprises Sweden and Norway, is approximately 1850 km long. It extends southward from the Barents Sea in the north, the Norwegian sea to the west and the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic Sea to the east. Denmark, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania are also visible in this week’s image.
Along the left side of the peninsula, the jagged fjords lining Norway’s coast can be spotted from space. Many of these fjords were carved out by the thick glaciers that formed during the last ice age. The largest and deepest fjord on Norway’s coast, called Sognefjord, lies in southwest Norway and is 1308 m deep.
Sweden’s topography consists mainly of flat, rolling lowlands dotted with lakes. Lake Vänern and Lake Vättern, the largest lakes of Sweden, are clearly visible at the bottom of the peninsula. The lakes do not freeze completely during the winter months. To the northeast of the peninsula lies Finland with more than 55 000 lakes – most of which were also created by glacial deposits.
During March, much of northern Europe and Scandinavia had been affected by a strong high-pressure weather system, which also allowed for this almost cloud-free acquisition. On 19 March in Tirstrup, Denmark, the atmospheric pressure reached 1051.6 hPa, the highest value ever recorded in March.
Carrying a suite of cutting-edge instruments, Copernicus Sentinel-3 measures Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere to monitor and understand large-scale global dynamics. It provides essential information in near-real time for ocean and weather forecasting.
With a focus towards our oceans, Sentinel-3 measures the temperature, colour and height of the sea surface as well as the thickness of sea ice, while, over land, the mission maps the way land is used, provides indices of vegetation state and measures the height of rivers and lakes.
A technical note: the image is a mosaic of 2 descending orbits with a difference of around 60 minutes between them, hence the observable striping at the top of the image.
This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2022), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Canon EOS 80D + Orion SkyQuest XT10 + Tele Vue 2.5x Powermate (giving an effective focal length of 3,000 mm).
Broadstairs, April 2021.
Copernicus – diameter is 96 km, named after the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. It typifies craters that formed during the Copernican period in that it has a prominent ray system. From Wikipedia: The Copernican Period in the lunar geologic timescale runs from approximately 1.1 billion years ago to the present day. The base of the Copernican period is defined by impact craters that possess bright optically immature ray systems.
Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120ED Telescope, ASI462MC camera, Sky-Watcher EQ6R-Pro pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in Autostakkert and PixInsight. Image Date: May 29, 2023. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image shows the lava and smoke plume blowing from the Litli-Hrútur in a southwest direction. Litli-Hrútur, which translates to ‘Little Ram’ is part of the Fagradalsfjall volcanic area in southwest Iceland.
Read full story: Litli-Hrútur eruption seen from space
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite brings us over part of the Sagaing Division in northwest Myanmar, and along the border with India.
Snaking through the image is the Chindwin River, which breached its banks during a period of severe flooding in 2015. Monsoon rains beginning that July caused multiple rivers in the region to overflow, causing widespread damage and affecting up to a million people.
This image was created using two passes by Sentinel-1’s radar: one before the flooding on 20 March 2015 and the other during the event on 4 September 2015. Combining them shows changes between the images, such as the inundation of some 111 000 hectares of land on either sides of the river bank appearing in red.
This information was then released in the form of a map under the International Charter Space and Major Disasters to assist relief efforts.
Currently led by ESA, the Charter is an international collaboration between 16 owners or operators of Earth observation missions. It provides rapid access to satellite data to help disaster management authorities in the event of a natural or man-made disaster.
Sentinel-1’s radar ability to ‘see’ through clouds, rain and in darkness makes it particularly useful for monitoring floods.
This image is featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2015), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the sediment-stained waters in Laizhou Bay, located on the southern shores of the Bohai Sea, on the east coast of mainland China.
The bay is the smallest of three main bays of the Bohai Sea, and is named after the city of Laizhou, visible to the east. Large quantities of sediment carried by the Yellow River, visible in the left of the image, discolour the waters of the bay and appear turquoise. This sediment can be seen throughout the waters in this image, even far from the coast.
The Yellow River is China’s second longest river, with a length of over 5400 km, and is surpassed only by the Yangtze River. The river rises in the Bayan Har Mountains in Western China and flows through nine provinces before emptying into the Laizhou Bay. Its drainage basin is the third largest in the country, with an area of around 750 000 sq km.
The river is estimated to carry 1.6 billion tonnes of silt annually, carrying the majority to the sea. Owing to this heavy load of silt, the Yellow River deposits soil in stretches, ultimately elevating the river bed. Excessive sediment deposits have raised the river bed several metres above the surrounding ground, sometimes causing damaging floods.
On the southern coast of Laizhou Bay, in the bottom of the image, flooded fields are visible and are most likely artificial fish farms. The city of Dongying, home to the second largest oilfield in China, is visible in the left of the image.
This image was processed in a way that included the near-infrared channel, which makes vegetation appear bright red. The lush vegetation can be distinguished from the brown fields in the image, which are unharvested or not yet fully grown.
Copernicus Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission. Each satellite carries a high-resolution camera that images Earth’s surface in 13 spectral bands. The mission is mostly used to track changes in the way land is being used and to monitor the health of vegetation.
This image, acquired on 26 February 2020, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Batura Glacier – one of the largest and longest glaciers in the world, outside of the polar regions.
Located in the upper Hunza Valley, in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan, the Batura Glacier is visible in the centre of the image and is approximately 57 km long. It flows from west to east and feeds the Hunza River in north Pakistan, then joins the Gilgit and Naltar Rivers before it flows into the Indus River.
The lower portions of the Batura Glacier feature a grey sea of rocks and gravelly moraine (an accumulation of rocks and sediment carried down by the glacier often caused by avalanches). The glacier has a mean ice thickness of around 150 m, with the lower parts of the glacier holding most of its mass.
This false-colour composite image uses the near-infrared channel of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission to highlight vegetation, which appears in red. Batura is bordered by several villages and pastures with herds of sheep, goats and cows where roses and juniper trees are quite common. In the upper-right of the image, pockets of cultivated vegetation alongside the Gilgit and Hunza rivers can be spotted.
Batura Glacier is located just north of the Batura Muztagh, a sub-range of the Karakoram mountain range, which includes the massifs of the Batura Sar, the 25th highest mountain on Earth standing at 7795 m, and Passu Sar at 7478 m.
Glacier shrinkage is a prominent sign of ongoing climate change. However, unlike many glaciers around the world, the glaciers residing in the mountain ranges in Karakoram are not responding to global warming. Their retreating is less than the global average, and in some cases, are either stable or growing. This anomalous behaviour of the region’s glaciers has been coined the ‘Karakoram Anomaly’.
Scientists typically measure the motions of glaciers with ground-based measurements. Because of the rugged terrain and challenges involved in field studies, long-term ground observational data on Karakoram is sparse. Satellites can help monitor changes in glacier mass, extents, trace area and length of glacier changes through time and derive surface velocity. Learn more about how Copernicus Sentinel-2 can help enhance glacier monitoring.
This image, captured on 13 August 2021, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Iconic terraced crater with slump blocks and 2 central peaks. There is a prominent ray system of ejecta.
I went with lower gain on the camera than I usually use since this is a bright target with good SNR. Because of this I could be choosier about selecting just the best frames from the 5000 frame video - just 10%.
10% of 5000 frames
Day 9 waxing Moon. Good seeing.
Celestron C9.25 SCT
Red filter
Baader VIP modular Barlow x 2
ZWO ASI174MM camera
NEQ6 Pro mount
FireCapture v2.6 Settings
------------------------------------
Camera=ZWO ASI174MM-Cool
Filter=R
File type=SER
FPS (avg.)=15
Shutter=63.81ms
Gain=146 (36%)
USBTraffic=58
Gamma=50 (off)
Histogram=83%
Limit=5000 Frames
Sensor temperature=20.7°C
Focuser position=21911
The Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite takes us over the Atlantic Ocean close to Spain and Portugal where the sky not only features clouds but also criss-cross tracks from maritime vessels.
The familiar condensation trails – or contrails – we see in the sky usually come from aircraft, so it might seem strange that ships can also occasionally leave their mark in the sky. This rarely seen maritime twist on aircraft contrails was captured by Sentinel-3A on 16 January 2018. Known as ship tracks, these narrow cloud streaks form when water vapour condenses around small particles that ships emit in their exhaust fumes. They typically form when low-lying stratus and cumulus clouds are present and when the air surrounding the ship is calm.
As the image shows, several shipping lanes intersect off the coast of Spain and Portugal. Although the Strait of Gibraltar is a busy shipping lane, with numerous ships travelling in and out of the Mediterranean Sea, there are no ship tracks visible here in the image. Most tracks are several hundreds of kilometres off shore.
Like aircraft contrails, ship tracks may also play a role in our climate by reducing the amount of sunlight that reaches Earth’s surface or conversely by trapping the Sun’s radiation in our atmosphere – but this remains an uncertain aspect of climate science.
The Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite carries a suite of sensors including an ocean and land colour instrument, which was used to capture this image, also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the Tanezrouft Basin – one of the most desolate parts of the Sahara Desert.
Zoom in to see this image at its full 10 m resolution or click on the circles to learn more about the features in this image.
Tanezrouft is a region of the Sahara lying in southern Algeria and northern Mali. The hyperarid area is known for its soaring temperatures and scarce access to water and vegetation, a reason why it’s often referred to as the ‘Land of Terror’. There are no permanent residents that live here, only occasional Tuareg nomads.
The barren plain extends to the west of the Hoggar mountains and southeast of the sandy Erg Chech. The terrain shows evidence of water erosion that occurred many years ago, when the Sahara Desert’s climate was much wetter, as well as wind erosion caused by frequent sandstorms – exposing ancient folds in the Paleozoic rocks.
The region is characterised by dark sandstone hills, steep canyon walls, salt flats (visible in white in the image), stone plateaus and seas of multi-storey sand dunes known as ‘ergs’. Concentric rings of exposed sandstone strata create a stunning pattern predominantly visible in the left of the image.
White lines in the right of the image are roads that lead to In Salah – the capital of the In Salah Province and In Salah District. Just above the centre-left of the image, an airstrip can be seen. An interesting, grid-like pattern can be seen in the bottom of the image and mostly consists of human-made clearings and roads.
This image, also featured on the Earth from Space video programme, was captured on 12 January 2020 by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission – a two-satellite mission to supply the coverage and data delivery needed for Europe’s Copernicus programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Long ago, man believed that the sun rotated around the earth. Here we plainly see that man travels around the sun.
This Copernicus Sentinel-3 image shows the dust storm that has covered Beijing in the last few days. Taken on 15 March 2021. It shows a thick layer of dust/sand moving towards China from the west
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel missions (2020), processed by ESA; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission takes us over the archipelago of Lofoten in northern Norway.
Extending around 175 km from north to south, the archipelago comprises five main islands (Austvågøya, Gimsøya, Vestvågøya, Flakstadøya, and Moskenesøya), as well as many small islands and skerries (rocky islets and reefs). Lofoten is known for its distinctive scenery, with dramatic mountains and peaks, sweeping beaches, deep blue fjords and sheltered bays.
Svolvær, the chief town and port of the Lofoten island group, is located on the southern coast of Austvågøya, the easternmost island of the archipelago. The economy largely depends on cod fisheries, with the town’s population swelling during the spawning season as fishermen flock in. The fjord of Vestfjorden lies between the archipelago and the mainland.
Although lying entirely within the Arctic Circle, Lofoten experiences one of the world’s largest elevated temperature anomalies relative to its high latitude. Due to a convergence of the Gulf Stream with two underwater currents, the North Atlantic Current and the Norwegian Current, the weather in Lofoten remains anomalously warm.
The colours of this week’s image come from the combination of two ‘polarisations’ from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission which have been converted into a single image. This remote sensing technique allows us to detect where differences between the polarisations are higher. These differences are visible in shades of blue in the image, such as the choppy Norwegian Sea, wetlands and mires such as those on the northern tip of Andøya and wet snow on hilltops and in mountains (bottom-right corner of the image).
What appears in yellow indicates what has fewer differences between polarisations, such as forests and other vegetated land, as well as built-up areas.
Sentinel-1 is a radar mission and unlike optical cameras, the images are usually black and white when they are received. By using a technology that aligns the radar beams sent and received by the instrument in one orientation – either vertically or horizontally – the resulting data can be processed in a way that produces coloured images such as the one featured here. This technique allows scientists to better analyse Earth’s surface.
This image, acquired on 24 November 2020, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission takes us over Lake Mar Chiquita – an endorheic salt lake in the northeast province of Córdoba, Argentina.
Lake Mar Chiquita, around 70 km long and 24 km wide, is fed primarily by the Primero and Segundo rivers from the southwest and from the Dulce river from the north. While these rivers flow into the lake, there isn’t a natural outflow of water so it only loses water by evaporation, hence Lake Mar Chiquita being described as an endorheic lake. The lake’s surface area, as well as its salinity, varies considerably (ranging between 2000 and 6000 sq km), although it is slowly diminishing in size owing to evaporation.
Several small islands lie in the lake, the most important of which is El Médano. Vast expanses of saline marshes can be seen on the lake’s northern shore. The lake has been designated as a Ramsar Site of International Importance, and is considered one of the most important wetlands in Argentina owing to its rich biodiversity. Over 25 species of fish are known to breed in Lake Mar Chiquita, with fishing and livestock being the principal land uses.
The colours of this week’s image come from the combination of two polarisations from the Sentinel-1 radar mission, which have been converted into a single image.
As radar images provide data in a different way than a normal optical camera, the images are usually black and white when they are received. By using a technology that aligns the radar beams sent and received by the instrument in one orientation – either vertically or horizontally – the resulting data can be processed in a way that produces coloured images such as the one featured here. This technique allows scientists to better analyse Earth’s surface.
Shades of blue in the image show us where the differences between the two polarisations are higher, for example the saline marshes in the lake’s north, whereas the crops and agricultural fields in the surrounding area appear yellow, indicating fewer differences between polarisations. Fields, such as those visible in the bottom-left corner of the image, appear blue most likely because they are wetter. Several villages, including San Francisco and Rafaela, are identifiable in white in the bottom-right of the image.
This image, acquired on 17 November 2020, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image acquired on 11 July 2023 shows unusual emerald green waters in the Bay of Naples, Italy.
According to the Regional Environmental Protection Agency of Campania, where Naples is, this phenomenon has already happened in past summers.
A combination of high sea temperatures and a slower water exchange in the Bay led to a proliferation of phytoplankton. Recent tests on the waters reported a sea temperature of about 29 degrees, lower salinity than average but a higher-than-usual concentration of chlorophyll.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The prominent crater Copernicus with its distinct rays is shown in the lower center right of this image with the Sea Of Showers of the moon above it. Taken through an Orion 80ed refracting telescope.
Copernicus posed beautifully with the flowers & a piece of Driftwood, I just love this shot, Bella, Charmin & Sophie got in on it too, I will post theirs soon..
This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image shows a snow-blanketed Berlin, taken on 31 January 2021.
Tiergarten, one of the city's biggest parks, can be seen in the city center, south of the Spree river.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Copernicus Crater – diameter is 96 km, named after the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. It typifies craters that formed during the Copernican period in that it has a prominent ray system.
Tech Specs: Meade 12” LX-90, ZWO ASI290MC, best 25% of 10,000 frames, unguided. Captured using SharpCap v3.2, edited with Registax and PixInsight. Image date: May 31, 2020. Location: The Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, PA, USA.
This image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission on 10 October, shows the new flow of lava from the volcano erupting on the Spanish island of La Palma.
This Sentinel-2 image has been processed in true colour, using the shortwave infrared channel to highlight the lava flow. The Sentinel-2 mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites, each carrying an innovative wide swath high-resolution multispectral imager with 13 spectral bands for monitoring changes in Earth’s land and vegetation.
The Volcanology Institute of the Canary Islands (Involcan) stated that the lava flow, with temperatures up to 1240°C, destroyed the few remaining buildings still standing north of the Todoque neighbourhood.
Read full story: La Palma volcano: How satellites help us monitor eruptions
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, captured on 28 December 2021, shows the location of the Zaap-C offshore platform with many other offshore platforms visible flaring in the area.
Please note that the water vapour columns are very typical on days when flaring is active. It is not the case for the days when the methane fluxes occur (on these days, there is neither flaring nor water vapour).
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA,CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Copernicus crater, imaged from London on 26th March 2018.
Celestron Edge HD11 scope, Televue 2.5x Powermate, ASI174MM camera and 685nm IR pass filter
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over part of the northern coast of the Pilbara region in Western Australia.
As the image shows, the coast is a complex system of deltas, limestone barrier islands, salt ponds and lagoons.
Captured on 5 March 2023 and processed in false-colour, the image offers information on vegetation. The processing involved using the mission’s near-infrared channel to help highlight the distribution, density and health of the vegetation in red. The healthier the plants are, the brighter red they appear.
On the left, tidal channels and mangroves are also visible in red. Mangroves play an important role in preventing erosion and protecting the coastline from waves and storms.
Round islands can be seen in the coastal lagoons. These are in contrast to the rectangular, white and blue ponds of the salt extraction industry in the Onslow Salt Lake to the east. Causeways divide the lake into three zones which help with the evaporation process.
North of the lake lies the coastal city of Onslow, with its airport clearly visible to the south of the city.
In the bottom centre of the image, numerous catchments that collect water after rain are visible in gold – gold partly due to the presence of mud.
Off the coast, a number of islands are scattered in the dark blue Indian Ocean waters. Their red appearance means that they are covered in vegetation. In fact, Pilbara islands are home to various nature reserves. Thevenard Island, the bigger island in the centre top of the image, is important for a wealth of marine wildlife such as sea turtles, dolphins, whales and fish.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO