View allAll Photos Tagged Copernicus
This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image captures an active lava lake on the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island.
Located in the central Pacific Ocean, Big Island is the southeastern-most island in the US state of Hawaii and, as its name suggests, the largest in the archipelago. Having formed above a magma hotspot in the Pacific plate, Hawaii has some of the world’s largest active volcanoes. One of these is Kilauea on the southeastern side of Big Island.
This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image from 3 September 2025 shows a lava lake approximately 2.5 km in length, inside the main crater of Kilauea. Following an eruptive episode on 2 September, lava fountains reached about 100 m high and lava flowed from multiple vents in the main crater.
Although the image has been processed in natural colour, the mission’s shortwave infrared channels, which detect heat sources, were also used to highlight the fiery lava flowing from the crater in orange and red. Plumes of smoke can also be seen leaking from the crater.
The current eruptive phase began on 23 December 2024 and continued into 2025 with repeated episodes of lava spewing into the air and flowing down the volcano. Signs of older eruptions are visible on the southern flanks of the crater as dark brown flows of solidified lava towards the coast.
Unlike the event pictured here, which was confined within the summit’s crater and posed little threat to the nearby communities, the eruption that began in May 2018 was one of the most destructive in Kilauea’s recorded history. It destroyed more than 600 homes and produced about 320 000 Olympic-sized swimming pools’ worth of lava that reshaped the landscape.
As we see in the image, the volcanic rock creates a rugged terrain, which contrasts with the surrounding lush vegetation and fields. In particular, light green and yellow areas north of the main crater correspond to human settlements, roads and plantations.
Big Island, like the other Hawaiian islands, has tropical forests from the combination of fertile volcanic soil and heavy rainfall. The clouds, visible throughout the image, form when the Pacific trade winds blow across the mountains in the middle of the ocean.
Satellite missions such as Copernicus Sentinel-2 are an excellent way to monitor volcanic eruptions, as they can image smoke plumes, lava flows, mudslides and ground fissures and can be used to help assess damage.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2025), processed by ESA; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
I have managed to find a bit of movement in the mount that i have reduced and it seems to have improved the images at extreme focal lengths . The images now seem quite a bit sharper.
Taken with a Nikon D700 and a Nikon 50mm f1.8
Griffith Observatory, L.A.
Copernicus proposed a theory (1514) and put it in book form (1543) that the Earth revolved around the sun, a theory now known to be true. However, the Church disapproved of it because the Holy Scriptures state that the Earth is at the center, not the Sun. As the contents of the Bible were taken literally, the publishing of these books proved, to the Church, that Copernicus and Galileo were sinners; they preached, through their writing, that the Bible was wrong.
During most of the 16th and 17th centuries, fear of heretics spreading teachings and opinions that contradicted the Bible dominated the Catholic Church. They persecuted scientists who formed theories the Church deemed heretical, and forbade people from reading any books on those subjects by placing the books on the Index of Prohibited Books.
The Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission takes us over the Japanese archipelago – a string of islands that extends about 3000 km into the western Pacific Ocean.
While the archipelago is made up of over 6000 islands, this image focuses on Japan's four main islands. Running from north to south, Hokkaido is visible in the top right corner, Honshu is the long island stretching in a northeast–southwest arc, Shikoku can be seen just beneath the lower part of Honshu, and Kyushu is at the bottom.
Honshu’s land mass comprises approximately four-fifths of Japan’s total area. Honshu’s main urban areas of Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka are clearly visible in the image. The large grey area in the east of the island, near the coast, is Tokyo, while the smaller areas depicted in grey are the areas around Nagoya and Osaka.
Honshu is also home to the country’s largest mountain, Mount Fuji. A volcano that has been dormant since it erupted in 1707, Mount Fuji is around 100 km southwest of Tokyo and its snow covered summit can be seen as a small white dot.
The Sea of Japan, also referred to as the East Sea, (visible to the west of the archipelago) separates the country from the east coast of Asia. The turquoise waters surrounding the island of Hokkaido can be seen at the top of the image, while the waters in the right of the image have a silvery hue because of sunglint – an optical effect caused by the mirror-like reflection of sunlight from the water surface back to the satellite sensor.
Sentinel-3 is a two-satellite mission to supply the coverage and data delivery needed for Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring programme. Each satellite’s instrument package includes an optical sensor to monitor changes in the colour of Earth’s surfaces. It can be used, for example, to monitor ocean biology and water quality.
This image, which was captured on 24 May 2019, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
One of the more prominent impact craters on the Moon, Copernicus is a younger feature. It is estimated to be from an impact about one billion years ago. The crater is 93 km in diameter and reaches depths of 3.7 km. The Sun is shining on it low in the east during this imaging session.
Taken during my Astronomy Lab on 2021-09-16
ZWO ASI120MM camera with a red Optolong filter on a Celestron Edge HD 925
Best 250 of 600 frames; stacked in AutoStakkert
Processing in PixInsight and Photoshop
The Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite takes us over the capital of Iceland, Reykjavik. As a volcanic island famous for its volcanoes, glaciers, lakes, lava and hot springs, Iceland attracts tourists all year round with its vast array of natural wonders.
This true colour image shows us the small city of Reykjavik, home to around 120 000 people, and seen in the lower central part of the image. The port town of Akranes, 20 km north of the capital, is also shown in grey in the centre of the image. In between the two lies Mount Esja, standing just over 900 m tall, and providing a dramatic backdrop to the capital.
In the upper left part of the image, ‘kettle holes’ are visible as small dark green dots scattered across the reddish brown area. Kettle holes are formed when blocks of ice break away from glaciers and then become buried in outwash. When these buried blocks of glacier ice melt away they leave behind holes, which become filled with water and turn into kettle hole lakes. They are often found in areas that were covered in ice during the last ice age, which ended around 12 000 years ago. Kettle holes are common in Michigan in the United States, as well as in parts of Germany, Austria and the UK.
The Sentinel-2 mission is tasked with monitoring our changing lands. Designed specifically to monitor vegetation, it can also detect differences in sparsely vegetated areas, as well as the mineral composition of soil, as found in Iceland.
This image, which was captured on 1 November 2017, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Combining images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission and the US Landsat-8 satellite between October 2015 and the end of 2016, this land-cover classification map shows different crops across Germany. A total of 2.2 TB of data were used to generate the map, which distinguishes between 21 land cover classes and includes 15 specific crop types.
Click on the box in the lower-right corner to view this image at its full 30 m resolution directly in your browser.
Clear pixels from all the satellite images were used to create a time series of 45 composites, each capturing the surface reflectance over a 10-day period, which can be related to crop type. Latest machine-learning software allowed this detailed map to be generated for the entire country.
While this early version of the map is still to be improved on, validation over the Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Bayern regions indicate an overall accuracy of 76%, with several crop types such as rapeseed, maize and sugar beet achieving accuracies of over 90%.
Having such detailed, spatially explicit, wall-to-wall results on land cover and crop types is a valuable source of information for a range of applications. Uses include supporting policies such as the EU Common Agricultural Policy, modelling biochemical fluxes and pollution, analysing land-use change, conserving biodiversity and managing natural resources.
Europe’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission provides important information for monitoring vegetation. Its multispectral camera has 13 spectral bands and is the first of its kind to include three bands in the ‘red edge’, which provide key data on vegetation state. The mission was designed to provide images that can be used to distinguish between different crop types as well as data on numerous plant indices, such as leaf area, leaf chlorophyll and leaf water – all essential to monitor plant growth accurately.
Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel and Landsat data (2015–16), processed and analysed by Humboldt University Berlin/P. Griffiths (ESA Living Planet Research Fellow). Data preprocessing: NASA and Harmonized Landsat–Sentinel initiative
Copernicus Region - 2017.05.06 22:48:06 PDT. ES ED152 + 2x Powermate, 2430 mm fl, ASI290-Cool, stack of 90/100 0.037 sec frames. Processed with Registax 6, Pixinsight.
Craters Kepler and Copernicus with Aristarchus top left. Imaged from London on the 9th December 2019.
Celestron Edge HD11 scope and ASI174MM camera.
The Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite takes us over northern Brazil on 22 August 2017, where the Amazon River meets the Atlantic Ocean.
The sediment-laden water appears brown as it flows from the lower left to the open ocean in the upper right. ‘Popcorn’ clouds are visible in parts of the image – a common occurrence during the Amazon’s dry season, formed by condensed water vapour released by plants and trees during the sunny day.
The land varies in colour from the deep green of dense vegetation to light brown. Taking a closer look to the upper-left section of the image, we can see large brown areas where the vegetation has already been cleared away. Geometric shapes indicate agricultural fields, and linear roads cut through the remaining dense vegetation.
Rainforests worldwide are being destroyed at an alarming rate. This is of great concern because they play an important role in global climate, and are home to a wide variety of plants, animals and insects. More than a third of all species in the world live in the Amazon Rainforest.
Unlike other forests, rainforests have difficulty regrowing after they are destroyed and, owing to their composition, their soils are not suitable for long-term agricultural use.
With their unique view from space, Earth observation satellites have been instrumental in highlighting the vulnerability of the rainforests by documenting the scale of deforestation.
This image is featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Copernicus Sentinel-2B satellite takes us over the Italian Alps and down to the low plains that surround the city of Milan.
The image captures the transition between the high snow-capped peaks of the Italian Alps and the flatlands of the northwest Po Valley. This transition cuts a sharp diagonal across the image, with the mountains in the top left triangle and the flat low-lying land in the bottom right.
The southern part of the beautiful Lake Maggiore can also be seen in the image. Although its northern end crosses into Switzerland, Lake Maggiore is Italy’s longest lake and its character changes accordingly. The upper end is completely alpine in nature and the water is cool and clear, the middle region is milder lying between gentle hills and Mediterranean flora, and the lower end advances to the verge of the plain of Lombardy.
The River Ticino, which rises in Switzerland and flows through Lake Maggiore, can be seen emerging from the lake’s southern tip. Here, the land, which is one of the most fertile regions in Italy, gives way to numerous agricultural fields, which are clearly visible to the west of the river. The city of Milan lies to the east of the river.
In May 2019, Milan will host ESA’s Living Planet Symposium. Held every three years, these symposia draw thousands of scientists and data users from around the world to discuss their latest findings on the environment and climate.
This image, which was captured on 9 October 2017, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
This Copernicus Sentinel-1 image combines two acquisitions over the same area of eastern Iraq, one from 14 November 2018 before heavy rains fell and one from 26 November 2018 after the storms. The image reveals the extent of flash flooding in red, near the town of Kut.
Kut is in the lower-centre of the image. It lies within a sharp ‘U-bend’ of the Tigris River, which can be seen meandering across the full width of the image. The image has been processed to show floods in red, and it is clear to see that much of the area was affected including agricultural fields around the town. Dark patches in the image, including the large patch in the centre , however, indicate that there was no or little change between the satellite acquisitions.
After the searing dry heat of summer, November typically signals the start of Iraq’s ‘rainy season’ –but November 2018 brought heavier rainstorms than usual. Many parts of the country were flooded as a result. Thousands of people had to be evacuated, and infrastructure, agricultural fields and other livelihoods were destroyed, and tragically the floods also claimed lives. Declared an emergency, the International Charter Space and Major Disasters was activated. The Charter takes advantage of observations from a multitude of satellites to aid emergency relief. Images from Copernicus Sentinel-1 contributed to this particular effort.
The two identical Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites carry radar instruments, which can see through clouds and rain, and in the dark, to image Earth’s surface below. This capability is particularly useful for monitoring and mapping floods, as the image shows. Satellite images play an increasingly important role in responding to disaster situations, especially when lives are at risk. Also, after an event, when damage assessments are needed and plans are being made to rebuild, images from satellites are a valuable resource.
This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by ESA,CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Clarence Strait, a narrow body of water in Australia’s Northern Territory.
Click on the box in the lower-right corner to view this image at its full 10 m resolution directly in your browser.
The strait ties the Beagle Gulf in the west with the Van Diemen Gulf to the east and separates Australia’s mainland from Melville Island, part of the Tiwi Islands. The southernmost tip of Melville is visible in the upper part of the image.
The three islands in the southern part of the strait, are the Vernon Islands, which host navigation aids to assist vessels passing through the strait.
Australia’s Northern Territory is a sparsely-populated region. With a population of around 140 000, Darwin is the territory’s capital and largest city, and is visible in grey in the centre of the image.
In 1839, the HMS Beagle sailed into the waters of what is now known as Darwin Harbour. The harbour was named after the British evolutionist Charles Darwin, but, contrary to popular belief, Darwin himself never visited the area.
With a strong Aboriginal culture, art and tropical summers, Darwin is a popular tourist destination. The Crocosaurus Cove in the heart of the city houses the world’s largest display of Australian reptiles.
The waters that surround Darwin are riddled with saltwater crocodiles and deadly box jellyfish, which inhabit the waters from October to May. The Adelaide River, known for its high concentration of saltwater crocodiles, can be seen to the right of Darwin, snaking its way northwards, flowing 180 km before emptying into the Timor Sea.
The Djukbinj National Park, visible east of Adelaide River, is a protected area and consists mostly of wetlands. The close vicinity to the water makes the park a major breeding ground for a variety of water birds, including magpie geese, herons and egrets.
Copernicus Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission. Each satellite carries a high-resolution camera that images Earth’s surface in 13 spectral bands. Data from Copernicus Sentinel-2 can help monitor changes in land cover.
This image, captured on 24 June 2019, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Copernicus Sentinel-2B satellite takes us over Semarang, Indonesia. A port city on the north coast of Java, Semarang is the fifth-largest city in the country, covering some 374 sq km and home to just over 1.5 million people.
This true-colour image shows the heart of the bustling regional commercial centre in the bottom-left, where a range of industries from fishing to glass manufacture and textiles operate. Exports of rubber, coffee, shrimp, tobacco, and cacao, among other products, pass through the city’s harbour, which can also be seen in the bottom-left of the image.
The Java Sea dominates the left part of the image. Flood management remains an ongoing challenge for the area, with the city being prone to tidal flooding.
The island nation of Indonesia is particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise. Some parts of Semarang, such as the residential area of Candi Baru, shown in the bottom-left of the image, stand just above sea level.
In the right of the image we can see mainly agricultural land, with rice fields stretching across the landscape. Land subsidence has been widely reported in the area, particularly in the northern part of Semarang, accelerated by population increases and urban development.
The impacts of subsidence include the wider expansion of (coastal) flooding areas, cracking of buildings and infrastructure, and increased inland seawater intrusion.
Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission for land monitoring, providing imagery of soil and water cover, inland waterways and coastal areas, for Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring programme. Wide swath Sentinel-2 data can also contribute to monitoring land-use change that triggers erosion, forest and wildfires, and the onset of floods.
This image, which was captured on 9 May 2018, is also featured on the Earth from Space programme, here www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2018/11/Earth_from_Space...
Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Aberkenfig, South Wales
Lat 51.542 N Long 3.593 W
Image captured using a 254mm Skywatcher Newtonian, Tal 2x Barlow Lens & ZWO ASI 120MC Imaging Camera.
Processed using Registax 6 & G.I.M.P.
Imaged with restored vintage Meade Research Grade Newton 320mm at f/18 with Player One Neptune M camera.
Another stich (2 panels) from todays morning session. Taken at about 10:30 in full daylight. QHY642c camera in 850IR on a Skymax 180 scope
Krater Kopernik, średnica 93 km.
Na północ księżycowe Karpaty (najwyższy szczyt 2400 metrów)
Po prawej zalany lawą krater Stadius, dalej przy brzegu kadru
krater Eratosthenes.
Na południe od Kopernika, krater Reinchold i oświetlony wschodni wał krateru Lansberg, oraz liczne kopuły magmowe.
Około 50 km na południowy wschód od krateru Lansberg
w 1965 roku rozbiła się sonda Łuna 5, a kolejne 50 km dalej i
dwa lata później lądował Surveyor 3, w 1969 nieopodal tego lądownika załogowy Apollo 12.
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ED80 / Barlow Hyperion / ASI 224
(ogniskowa 2150 mm)
2.04.2020
This is a detail from one of my mosaic sequences of the Moon taken on 7 February. Centre lower left is Copernicus, with Eratosthenes the next largest crater almost dead centre and the Apenninus mountain range stretching from the centre to the top right of the image.
As I was running the image sequence it looked briefly as if there was a face on Eratosthenes, with the central peak making a nose, two bright areas either side the eyes and a small crater within the lower part resembling a mouth. Perhaps there is a Man in the Moon after all!
Peter
The Dutch are now starting to see their famous spring flowers poke through the winter soil, but a few weeks ago it was a different story as a cold snap took grip.
This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image from 2 March 2018 shows Amsterdam and the IJmeer and Markemeer freshwater lakes covered by a thin layer of ice. As famous as the Netherlands is for flowers, it’s arguably equally renowned for ice skating. While the cold snap caused havoc throughout much of Europe, the Dutch were busy dusting off their skates and eager to hit the ice. The ice on these big lakes was much too thin to skate on, but some canals in Amsterdam were closed to boats to give the ice a chance to thicken and skaters took what is now a relatively rare opportunity to enjoy a national pastime.
A possible consequence of climate change, the Netherlands doesn’t see the ice that it used to. The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute rates winters using an index: those scoring above 100 are considered cold. Between 1901 and 1980, there were seven winters above 200 – very cold. The last time the index exceeded the magical 100 mark was in 1997. In fact, this was also the last time the weather was cold enough for an ‘Elfstedentocht’: a 200 km skating race between 11 towns in the north of the country. In 2014, for the first time since measurements began, the index fell to zero.
While people enjoyed the ice below, this Sentinel-2 image, which is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme, allows us to view the beauty of this short-lived layer of ice from above.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Skywatcher Explorer with IMG132e camera
Processed in Registax. 1300 frame video.
Conditions very not ideal
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the Lake Tai, the third largest freshwater lake in China. The lake, also known as Lake Taihu, is located in the Jiangsu province and is approximately 70 km long and 60 km wide, with an average water depth of approximately 2 metres. The lake discharges its waters through Wusong, Liu, Huangpu and several other rivers.
The Tai Basin is a very developed region in China, and includes the megacities Suzhou, visible east of the lake, Wuxi, visible north of the lake, and the nearby Shanghai. Over the past decades, rapid urbanisation, population growth and excessive fish farming have resulted in eutrophication – where the lake becomes enriched with minerals and nutrients.
The increase of nutrients deteriorate the water quality of the lake causing toxic algae blooms to form on the lake’s surface – threatening the quality for millions of people who depend on the lake as a source of drinking water.
In 2007, the algal blooms were so severe that the outbreak was declared a health emergency. Water supplies to Wuxi were suspended, leaving two million residents without drinking water for several weeks.
In this image captured on 24 May 2019, the algae-infested waters are clearly visible.
Algae blooms have been reported in the lake since the 1980s. Many attempts have been made to salvage the water quality of the lake including removal of the algae, closing chemical and manufacturing plants near Tai and stricter water treatment regulations.
However, the lake remains to be highly polluted. Agriculture, sewage and manufacturing still affect the lake’s waters – overloading it with nutrients.
Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission to supply the coverage and data delivery needed for Europe’s Copernicus programme. The mission’s frequent revisits over the same area and high spatial resolution allow changes in inland water bodies to be closely monitored.
This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
ZWO ASI178MC
Meade LX850 (12" f/8)
Losmandy G11
2000 frames captured in Firecapture
Best 60% stacked in Autostakkert
Wavelet sharpened in Registax
Finished in Photoshop
From Copernicus Eratosthenes crater is towards north-east , Reinhold is to the south-southwest (the darker/deeper one) and Reinhold B atop of Reinhold.
This shot was take on the 2014.06.07
I gave a go for new processing method with Autostakkert 2, result is promising :)
Copernicus Sentinel-3 view of Storm Mathis yesterday morning, bringing with it some strong winds and rain to parts of the UK ☔️
This image from over the Azores island of São Miguel features a volcanic complex called the Sete Cidades Massif.
The circular crater or caldera dominates the image and measures about 5 km across. The interior has lakes, volcanic cones, lava domes and maars – or shallow, flooded craters.
The Lagoa das Sete Cidades – or Lagoon of Seven Cities – is comprised of two ecologically different lakes that are connected by a narrow passage, visible at the centre of the image. The lake to the north is known as the Blue Lake while to the one to the south is the Green Lake for the colours they reflect.
According to the legend, the protected daughter of a king escaped to the surrounding hills, where she met and fell in love with a young shepherd. When the shepherd asked the king for his daughter in marriage, the king refused and forbade his daughter from seeing the boy again. The two met secretly one last time and cried until their tears filled the valleys to form the two lakes: one green as the Princess's eyes were green, and the other blue like the shepherd’s eyes.
In the surrounding area we can see the distinct lines where vegetation grows along waterways radiating from the circular massif. Between these lines are agricultural plots.
This image, also featured on the Earth from Space video programme, was acquired by the Spanish Deimos-2 satellite on 6 December 2014. With its high-resolution optical imager, the satellite can see down to a 75 cm ground resolution.
On 1 April, Deimos-2 will become a contributing mission to Europe’s Copernicus programme.
Credit: DEIMOS Imaging
The Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission takes us over Madagascar. This huge island nation, located off the east coast of Africa and seen in the left of the image, has a population of around 25 million. More than half of the country’s inhabitants are aged under 25. The island is also home to rare flora and fauna, having developed its own ecosystems and wildlife since splitting from the African continent some 160 million years ago.
Preserving its impressive biodiversity is an ongoing challenge for the country. With an area of almost 600 000 sq km, Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world. Some of the world’s most extensive coral reef systems, huge mangrove areas, and a vast array of birds, lemurs, and many other species can be found here. Deforestation poses a serious threat to the island’s habitats, with illegal wildlife trade representing a further challenge.
In this true-colour image from Copernicus Sentinel-3’s ocean and land colour instrument, we can see sediment in the water along the coast. The island appears in green on the east coast, where the prevailing trade winds bring clouds and up to 3.5 m of rain per year to the low-lying coast.
The central and western highlands and coast appear in brown and are much dryer, especially between May to October. The volcanic mountainous area of Ankaratra can be found in the central highlands. In the north of the island, the highest peak of Maromokotro stands almost 2900 m above sea level.
The Mozambique Channel, which separates Madagascar from the continent, is an important shipping route for east Africa and home to significant tuna reserves. Efforts are underway to ensure that sustainability is considered in local development. Identifying and protecting critical habitats, such as migratory corridors, is part of this work.
Sentinel-3 is a two-satellite mission to supply the coverage and data delivery needed for Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring programme. It provides critical information for a range of applications from marine observation to large-area vegetation monitoring.
This image, which was captured on 7 August 2018, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite takes us over the jagged islands along the west coast of Greenland in this false-colour image captured on 8 August 2017.
Covering more than 2 000 000 sq km, Greenland is the world’s largest island and home to the second largest ice sheet after Antarctica. But these ice sheets are sensitive to changes in our climate, and rising temperatures are causing them to melt faster.
Scientists use Earth-observing satellites to track the ice loss. Between 2011 and 2014, Greenland lost around 1000 billion tonnes of ice. This corresponds to a 0.75 mm contribution to global sea-level rise each year.
Melting ice sheets caused by rising temperatures and the subsequent rising of sea levels is a devastating consequence of climate change, especially for low-lying coastal areas. In addition, the increased influx of freshwater into oceans affects the salinity, which in turn affects global ocean currents – a major player in the regulation of our climate.
On the right side of this image, the Nordenskiold Glacier is just one of many glaciers draining Greenland’s ice sheet.
Vegetation appears red in this false-colour image, as the land here is covered by grasses and low-lying plants. Swirls of light blue in the water are suspended fine sediment produced by the abrasion of glaciers rubbing against rock, called ‘glacier milk’.
This image is featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Large smoke plume from the recent Canada wildfires, visible over NYC on 7 June. Many US states have experienced poor air quality as a result 😷
As seen by the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite ️
The Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite takes us over the Japanese capital of Tokyo.
Tokyo lies on the eastern shore of the island of Honshu, the largest of Japan’s four main islands. Greater Tokyo, which fans out further to the north and northwest than this image shows, is home to almost 38 million people, making it the largest megacity in the world.
The grey tones of this urban conurbation dominate the image and are in sharp contrast to the dark greens of the rugged mountains that flank the city to the west. The city centre lies mainly to the south of the Arakawa River, which empties into Tokyo Bay. The bay can be seen in the bottom right of the image. While many boats are visible in the bay, so is the Aqua-line, which is a combination of a bridge and a tunnel that spans the bay. The Aqua-line can be seen on the east side of the bay as a bridge that then disappears underwater as a tunnel. It has an overall length of almost 23.7 km, almost 10 km of which is tunnel – the fourth longest underwater tunnel in the world. A building that provides ventilation, as well as serves a rest stop, appears as an island-like structure above the tunnel.
More than half of the global population live in urban areas and, as more people flock to cities, expansion and development needs to be planned and monitored. The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission offers essential information for urban planners and decision-makers around the world.
The image, which is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme, was captured by Sentinel-2A on 8 May 2017.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
This image of Romania – with the political borders in red – is a mosaic of 15 scans by Sentinel-1A’s radar in October and November.
The scans were acquired in ‘dual polarisation’ horizontal and vertical radar pulses, from which the artificial colour composite was generated.
The Carpathian mountains sweep down from the north and across the centre of the country.
Romania is home to the largest area of virgin forests in Europe, most of them in the Carpathians. These forests are home to brown bears, wolves and other animals, and many thermal and mineral springs can be found in the foothills.
The longest river in the EU – the Danube – flows along part of western Romania’s border with Serbia, as well as its southern border with Bulgaria. The river then flows northward and empties into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta, which lies within Romania and Ukraine – visible on the right side of the image.
Designated a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site in 1991, the Danube Delta is a labyrinth of river channels, lakes, bays, floodplains, marsh and reed beds. This vast triangular delta is home to an extremely rich variety of birds, fish, animals and plants.
Romania’s capital, Bucharest, is visible in the southern part of the country, as a cluster of bright radar reflections expanding outward from the centre.
Bucharest is also the site of next year’s Land Training Course, to be held in September. ESA organises the course each year devoted to train the next generation of Earth observation scientists in the exploitation of satellite data for science and applications development.
Credit: Copernicus data/ESA (2014)
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the island of South Georgia. Linked with the South Sandwich Islands to form a British Overseas Territory, this southern Atlantic island is a haven for a vast array of wildlife.
Around five million seals call the islands home, as well as 65 million birds of 30 different species. Migrating whales and various fish species populate the surrounding waters and there is a large penguin population.
First discovered by Captain James Cook in 1775, there is no permanent human population on the island, due to its remote location and inhospitable environment. Nevertheless, a British Antarctic Survey research station operates in the capital, King Edward Point, in the island’s centre. This is a centre for applied fisheries research, while on Bird Island, lying off the north-west tip of South Georgia, scientists and support staff focus on research into bird and seal biology.
As we can see clearly in the image, South Georgia is mostly covered in snow. Its polar climate gives it short and very cold summers, and long, freezing and overcast winters. The rugged landscapes of the island are often said to leave visitors in awe, with two mountain ranges dominating - the Allardyce towards the middle of the island and Salvesen in the south.
In 2012 the UK Government designated South Georgia as one of the world’s largest sustainable use Marine Protected Areas. Significant investment has also been made in fisheries management and scientific research, as well as targeted conservation efforts to help protect the albatross. South Georgia is home to the Wandering Albatross – the largest flying bird species in the world.
Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission to supply the coverage and data delivery needed for Europe’s Copernicus programme. The mission’s frequent revisits over the same area and high spatial resolution allow changes in inland water bodies and the coastal environment to be closely monitored.
This image, which was captured on 22 February 2018, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO