Stretches of land across New South Wales, Australia, have been hit with torrential rain leading to record-breaking floods. The heavy rainfall has caused dams to spill over, rives to burst their banks and thousands of people forced to evacuate their homes. Data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission are being used to map flooded areas to help relief efforts.

This radar image uses information from two separate images captured by the Sentinel-1 mission on 7 and 19 March highlighting flooded areas in dark blue and urban areas in light grey. Many of these areas affected by the record-breaking floods were ravaged by wildfires during Australia’s bushfire season in 2019. Large swaths of bushland and grazing country were scorched black by the blazes, with patches of burned land visible in light brown in the image.

Images acquired before and after flooding offer immediate information on the extent of inundation and support assessments of property and environmental damage. Copernicus Sentinel-1’s radar ability to ‘see’ through clouds and rain, and in darkness, makes it particularly useful for monitoring floods.

Data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission have been used by the Copernicus Emergency Mapping Service, activated on 20 March, to map the flooded areas. The service provides information for emergency response to different types of disasters, including meteorological hazards, geophysical hazards, deliberate and accidental man-made disasters and other humanitarian disasters, as well as prevention, preparedness, response and recovery activities.

Credits: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA/NASA MODIS

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

While much of Europe is on drought alert, this image, captured from space by Copernicus Sentinel-1 on 30 August 2022, shows the extent of flooding that is currently devastating Pakistan. Heavy monsoon rainfall – ten times heavier than usual – since mid-June have led to more than a third of the country now being underwater.

This catastrophic flood has claimed the lives of more than 1100 people and more than 33 million, one in seven Pakistanis, have been affected by the flooding. Homes, croplands and infrastructure have been washed away. Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, describes the flood as the worst in the country’s history and says it will cost at least $10 billion to repair damaged infrastructure.

The left side of the Copernicus Sentinel-1 image shows a wide view of the area affected and the image on the right zooms into the area between Dera Murad Jamali and Larkana. The Indus River has overflowed, effectively creating a long lake, tens of kilometres wide. The blue to black colours show where the land is submerged.

The Copernicus Emergency Management Service has been activated to provide flood maps from space to help responders deal with the crisis.

Europe’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission carries a radar instrument to ‘see’ through clouds and rain darkness, making it particularly useful for monitoring floods.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2022), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Record rainfall has caused swollen rivers to burst their banks and wash away homes and other buildings in western Europe – leading to more than 90 casualties and over 1000 people missing. Data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission are being used to map flooded areas to help relief efforts.

The German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia were among the worst hit by the torrential rainfall, with water levels rising in the Rhine River, as well as the Walloon Region in Belgium. The storms and high waters have also battered neighbouring Switzerland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

This radar image uses information from two separate acquisitions captured by the Sentinel-1 mission on 3 July and 15 July 2021, and it shows the extent of the flooding in red. Radar images acquired before and after flooding disasters offer immediate information on the extent of inundation and have proved useful in monitoring floods, thanks to Sentinel-1’s ability to ‘see’ through clouds and rain.

The mission has been supplying imagery through the Copernicus Emergency Mapping Service to aid relief efforts. The devastating floods has triggered four activations in the Copernicus Emergency Mapping Service, in Western Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

The service uses observations from multiple satellites to provide on-demand mapping to help civil protection authorities and the international humanitarian community in the face of major emergencies.

Learn more about the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The Bering Strait is a sea passage that separates Russia and Alaska. It is usually covered with sea ice at this time of year – but as this image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission on 7 March 2019 shows, it is virtually ice-free.

The Bering Strait is a narrow passage - around 80 km wide - connecting the Pacific and Arctic Oceans. The few patches of sea ice are shown in light-blue colours.

The extent of sea ice in the Bering Sea has dropped lower than it has been since written records began in 1850, and is most likely because of warm air and water temperatures. On average, the fluctuating sea ice in this region increases until early April, depending on wind and wave movement.

According to the National Snow & Ice Data Center, between 27 January to 3 March 2019, sea-ice extent decreased from 566 000 sq km to 193 000 sq km. Sea ice was also exceptionally low last year, but it has been reported that this March the extent of sea ice is the lowest in the 40-year satellite record.

To travel between Arctic and Pacific, marine traffic passes through the Bering Strait. Owing to the reduction of ice in the region, traffic has increased significantly.

The Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites provide images to generate maps of sea-ice conditions for safe passage in the busy Arctic waters, as well as distinguish between thinner, more navigable first-year ice and thicker, more hazardous ice. Each satellite carries an advanced radar instrument to image Earth’s surface through cloud and rain, regardless of whether it is day or night.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

This image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, shows the Amazon River meandering through one of the most vital ecosystems in the world – the Amazon rainforest in South America.

This image has been processed in a way that shows water bodies, such as the Amazon River, in blue. The Amazon river begins its journey in the Andes and makes its way east through six South American countries before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean on the northeast coast of Brazil. The river has a length of around 6400 km – the equivalent of the distance from New York City to Rome.

The Amazon is considered the widest river in the world with a width of between 1.6 and 10 km, but expands during the wet season to around 50 km. With more than 1000 tributaries, the Amazon River is the largest drainage system in the world in terms of the volume of its flow and the area of its basin. As a consequence of its ever-changing flow, older riverbeds can be seen as thin lines around the main river at the top of the image.

One of its tributaries, the Javari River, or Yavari River, is visible as a thinner blue line weaving through the tropical rainforest. The river flows for 870 km, forming the border between Brazil and Peru, before joining the Amazon River.

In the image, cities and built-up areas are visible in cyan, for example the cities of Tabatinga and Leticia with two airports are easily identifiable in the far-right. The yellow and orange colours in the image show the surrounding Amazon forest.

The colours of this week’s image come from the combination of two polarisations from the Copernicus 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 for a better distinction of features on the ground.

This image, acquired on 3 March 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

Botswana’s Okavango Delta – the world’s largest inland delta – is featured in this multitemporal radar image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission.

The delta is fed by the Okavango River, which is often referred to as ‘the river that never reaches the sea’. This is because, unlike most rivers, its direction of flow is inland. Instead of flowing towards the sea, the Okavango River irrigates the Kalahari Desert.

The Okavango Delta is a labyrinth of lagoons, swamps, channels and islands. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and part of the Ramsar wetland network. Wetlands are the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth, even more productive than tropical rainforests.

Wetlands can be difficult to access, but satellite observations from space can provide information on types of vegetation and water bodies, and how they change over time. Images acquired by satellites carrying radar instruments, such as Sentinel-1 are particularly useful, as they can be used to differentiate between dry and waterlogged surfaces, and show how wetlands change with the seasons.

This composite combines three Copernicus Sentinel-1 radar images, acquired over eight months in 2021. Each acquisition has been given a different colour – red for January, green for April and blue for August – to show how the land and water changed between acquisitions.

The shades of pink and blue in the lower part of the delta depict the seasonal changes in vegetation occurring along the waterways. The same goes for the Mababe depression, visible on the right side of the delta as an area with the same colouring.

In the bottom left of the image, Lake Ngami appears in dark colours, as its calm waters reflect the radar signal in all of the acquisitions. The green tones around it mean that the area around the lake is subject to seasonal flooding.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The swirling landscape of Iran’s salt desert, Dasht-e Kavir, is reminiscent of an abstract painting in this Sentinel-1 image.

With temperatures reaching about 50ºC in the summer, this area sees little precipitation, but runoff from the surrounding mountains creates seasonal lakes and marshes. The high temperatures cause the water to evaporate, leaving behind clays and sand soils with a high concentration of minerals.

The ‘brushstroke’ patterns are geological layers eroded primarily by wind.

Iran is one of the world’s most important mineral producers. Earth-observing satellites are useful for finding and monitoring natural resources like minerals.

Along the left side of the image we can see part of an area known as the ‘devil’s dunes’ because it was believed to be haunted by evil spirits. This belief likely originated from its hostile conditions, and the early travellers who did attempt to cross it probably never returned due to starvation or dehydration.

This image combines three scans from Sentinel-1A’s radar on 21 January, 14 February and 9 March 2016. Changes between the acquisitions appear in vibrant bright colours – such as the blues, reds and greens we see primarily on the left half of the image. These areas are salt lakes and the colours show fluctuations in the amount of water present over time.

Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2016], processed by ESA

Mississippi River, one of the longest rivers in North America, is featured in this multi-temporal radar image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission.

The Mississippi River is one of the world’s major river systems in size, habitat diversity and biological productivity. The river flows 3766 km from its source at Lake Itasca through the centre of the continental United States to the Gulf of Mexico.

The area pictured here shows where the Mississippi straddles the states of Louisiana and Mississippi. The image combines three radar acquisitions from the Sentinel-1 mission taken 12 days apart to show changes in crop and land conditions over time. Bright colours in the image come from changes on the ground that have occurred between acquisitions.

Water bodies, including the Mississippi River, visible in the far right, and Catahoula Lake, in the far left, appear black as water surfaces reflect the radar signal away from the satellite. If we take a closer look, we can see cargo ships travelling along the Mississippi. Ships from 7 April 2022 appear in red, those from 19 April appear in green, and those from 1 May appear in blue.

White areas in the image indicate the various types of vegetation that surrounds the river, including the Kisatchie National Forest – the only national forest in Louisiana. The Mississippi is a classic example of a meandering alluvial river with its loops and curls along its path leaving behind meander scars, cutoffs and free-standing ‘oxbow lakes’.

The Mississippi River Basin is home to a variety of agricultural activity. Nutrient-rich soil from sediment deposits through the floodplain supports cropland close to the river and its tributaries. Rectangular fields in the image are cultivated land. The farming of cotton and soybean make up a significant portion of the areas economic production.

Sentinel-1A was the first satellite to be launched for Copernicus – the Earth observation component of the European Union’s space programme. Looking ahead, the upcoming Sentinel-1C satellite scheduled to lift off on ESA’s Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana in the first half of 2023, will continue the critical task of delivering key radar imagery for a wide range of services, applications and science.

The satellite is now at Thales Alenia Space’s Cannes plant on the French Riviera after it successfully completed all integration tests this summer in Rome, Italy. It will now undergo a final series of tests in Cannes, including radiofrequency performance checks in the facility’s anechoic chamber.

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

This radar image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, shows us the only city-island-nation – Singapore – and one of the busiest ports in the world.

The Republic of Singapore is located just off the southern tip of the Malayan Peninsula, between Malaysia and Indonesia, around 135 km north of the equator. It consists of the 710 sq km Singapore Island, visible in the top-centre of the image, as well as some 60 small islets.

Nearly two-thirds of the Singapore Island is less than 15 m above sea level. The highest summit, Timah Hill, has an elevation of only 160 m. Changi Airport, one of the largest transportation hubs in Asia, can be seen at the eastern end of the island.

Singapore Island is separated from the Peninsular Malaysia to the north by the Johore Strait, a narrow channel crossed by a road and train causeway, while the southern end faces the Singapore Strait, where the Riau-Lingga Archipelago (part of Indonesia) extends.

Singapore is home to the largest port in Southeast Asia and one of the busiest in the world. The port offers connectivity to more than 600 ports in 123 countries. It owes its growth and prosperity to its position at the southern extremity of the Malay Peninsula, where it dominates the Strait of Malacca, which connects the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea.

This week’s image contains satellite data stitched together from three separate radar scans, in order to detect changes occurring between acquisitions. The sea surface reflects the radar signal away from the satellite, making water appear dark in the image and contrasts with metal objects, in this case ships and vessels, which appear as bright, sparkly dots in the dark water.

In this image, boats from 28 December 2021 appear in red, those from 9 January 2022 appear in green, and those from 21 January 2022 appear in blue. The various colours in the ocean are due to the changing surface currents and sediments from river deltas, while major cities and towns are visible in white owing to the strong reflection of the radar signal.

The advantage of radar as a remote sensing tool is that it can image Earth’s surface through rain and cloud, and regardless of whether it is day or night. This is particularly useful for monitoring areas prone to long periods of darkness – such as the Arctic – or providing imagery for emergency response during extreme weather conditions.

This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021-22), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

An enormous iceberg has calved from the western side of the Ronne Ice Shelf, lying in the Weddell Sea, in Antarctica. The iceberg, dubbed A-76, measures around 4320 sq km in size – currently making it the largest berg in the world.

Spotted in recent images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, the iceberg is around 170 km in length and 25 km wide, and is slightly larger than the Spanish island of Majorca.

The enormity of the berg makes it the largest in the world, snatching first place from the A-32A iceberg (approximately 3880 sq km in size) which is also located in the Weddell Sea. In comparison, the A-74 iceberg that broke off the Brunt Ice Shelf in February earlier this year, was only 1270 sq km.

The iceberg was spotted by the British Antarctic Survey and confirmed from the US National Ice Center using Copernicus Sentinel-1 imagery. The Sentinel-1 mission consists of two polar-orbiting satellites that rely on C-band synthetic aperture radar imaging, returning data regardless of whether it is day or night, allowing us year-round viewing of remote regions like Antarctica.

Icebergs are traditionally named from the Antarctic quadrant in which they were originally sighted, then a sequential number, then, if the iceberg breaks, a sequential letter.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The enormous Ever Given container ship, wedged in Egypt’s Suez Canal, is visible in new images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission.

The giant container ship ran aground in the canal on 23 March on its journey from China to the Netherlands. The image on the left, captured on 21 March, shows routine maritime traffic in the canal with vessels visible every 2 to 3 km. The image on the right, captured on 25 March, shows the 400 m-ship blocking the canal.

The canal connects Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean via the Egyptian city of Suez on the Red Sea. The blockage has delayed hundreds of tankers and vessels in reaching their destination, and more maritime traffic is still heading to the crucial waterway. Ships can be seen accumulating in the Gulf of Suez.

Tug boats are working hard to dislodge the 200 000 tonne ship, however Egyptian authorities say it is unclear when the route will reopen.

The two identical Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites carry radar instruments to provide an all-weather, day-and-night supply of imagery of Earth’s surface, making it ideal to monitor ship traffic.

The sea surface reflects the radar signal away from the satellite, and makes water appear dark in the image. This contrasts with metal objects, in this case the ships in the bay, which appear as bright dots in the dark waters.

Credits: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The Kangerlussuaq Glacier, one of Greenland’s largest tidewater outlet glaciers, is pictured in this false-colour image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission. Meaning ‘large fjord’ in Greenlandic, the Kangerlussuaq Glacier flows into the head of the Kangerlussuaq Fjord, the second largest fjord in east Greenland.

Each Sentinel-1 satellite carries an advanced radar instrument giving us a day-and-night supply of images of Earth’s surface. Remote sensing allows us to monitor ice sheets across the globe and keep track of all calving stages – from rift detection to iceberg breakaway – as well as measure ice cover and drifting icebergs.

This Sentinel-1 radar image combines three separate acquisitions during the summer of 2021 and shows visible changes on the ground and sea surface between three acquisition dates: 4 June, 16 June and 28 June. The array of colours represents the seasonal retreat of ice during this time.

At the top of the image, stable ice can be seen in white and is present in all three radar acquisitions. Ice and snow visible only in the early-summer acquisitions can be seen in bright yellow and are not present in the last acquisition as they have melted by this time. The different shades of red highlights ice and snow detected only in the first acquisition captured on 4 June. Colours on the sea surface vary owing to surface currents and sea ice dynamics.

Research using satellite imagery suggests that since 2017, Kangerlussuaq has entered a new phase of rapid retreat and acceleration, and its ice front is now at its most retreated position since the early 20th century.

As global temperatures increase, the melting of the massive ice sheets that blanket Greenland has significantly accelerated, contributing to sea-level rise. Over the past decade alone, findings have revealed that 3.5 trillion tonnes of ice have melted from the Greenland ice sheet and spilled into the ocean – enough to cover the UK with meltwater 15 m deep.

Using data from ESA’s CryoSat mission, the research shows that extreme ice melting events in Greenland have become more frequent and more intense over the past 40 years, raising sea levels and the risk of flooding worldwide.

Raised sea levels heighten the risk of flooding for coastal communities worldwide and disrupt Arctic Ocean marine ecosystems, as well as altering patterns of ocean and atmospheric circulation – which affect weather conditions around the planet.

Observations of Greenland runoff from space can be used to verify how climate models simulate ice sheet melting which will allow improved predictions of how much Greenland will raise the global sea level in the future.

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

Interferogram created by combining two Sentinel-1A radar scenes from 2 and 14 March 2015 over the Danube Delta in Romania.

Credit: Copernicus data (2015)/Terrasigna

The Falkland Islands are featured in this radar image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission.

The Falkland Islands lie in the South Atlantic Ocean, around 500 km northeast of the southern tip of South America. The Falklands comprise two main islands, West Falkland and East Falkland, as well as hundreds of other smaller islands and islets, which form a total land area approximately five times the size of Luxembourg. The two main islands are separated by the Falkland Sound, a channel that averages around 20 km in width.

This multi-temporal image combines two radar acquisitions from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission taken one month apart to show changes over time. The first image was captured on 29 December 2019, while the second was taken on 22 January 2020. Here, the main changes between acquisitions occurred in the open ocean, with the bright red colours showing wavy waters in December 2019.

The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission provides a continuous sampling of the seas, offering information on wind and waves. This is useful for understanding interactions between waves and currents and to improve efficiency for shipping and wave-energy applications, potentially producing economic benefits.

The landscape of the Falkland Islands comprises mountain ranges, flat plains, rugged coastline and cliffs. Hills run east-west across the northern parts of the two main islands, with the highest point being Mount Usborne on East Falkland (around 700 m). Two inlets, Berkeley Sound and Port William, visible in the far right of the image, run far into the land and provide anchorage for shipping. The majority of the population of the islands live in Stanley, on East Falkland.

The islands are covered with grasslands, but not trees, which are widely used as pastureland for sheep and cattle. The islands are also an important habitat and breeding grounds for birds, penguins and seals.

This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019-20), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Northern Italy’s Po Valley is the most densely populated area in the country, accounting for nearly half of the national population. In this Sentinel-1A image, acquired on 24 April 2014, cities are visible along the bottom as bright radar reflections, lined along the main highway running left to right. Milan appears brightest on the left. Lake Garda, in the upper right, is Italy’s largest lake and third largest in the Alpine region.

This image is part of the exhibition at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan, Italy.

My Planet from Space: Fragility and Beauty takes you on a journey to some of the most beautiful and remote places on Earth.

Satellite eyes provide us with images of an ever-changing Earth: glaciers melting, sea levels rising, rainforests threatened by deforestation, growing desertification affecting croplands, and uncontrolled urban sprawl. They highlight the importance of spaceborne technology in the management and protection of natural resources and the global environment.

The exhibition has been organised to coincide with the Expo 2015, with particular focus on agriculture to highlight the Expo’s theme, ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life’.

The exhibition runs 9 May to 10 January. For more information on visiting hours and tickets, see the museum website.

Credit: Copernicus data (2014)/ESA

The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission takes us over the busy maritime traffic passing through the English Channel.

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. Here, hundreds of radar images spanning 2016 to 2018 over the same area have been, compressed into a single image.

The sea surface reflects the radar signal away from the satellite, making water appear dark in the image. This contrasts metal objects, in this case ships, which appear as bright dots in the dark water. Boats that passed the English Channel in 2016 appear in blue, those from 2017 appear in green, and those from 2018 appear in red.

Owing to its narrowness, as well as its strategic connection of the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, the Channel is very busy with east-west ship traffic. Because of the volume of vessels passing through daily, a two-lane scheme is used, in order to avoid collisions. The two lanes can easily be detected in the image.

Many vessels crossing at the narrowest part of the English Channel can be seen in the far right of the image. Connecting Dover in England to Calais in northern France, the Strait of Dover is another major route, with over 400 vessels crossing every day. The shortest distance across the Channel is just 33 km, making it possible to see the opposite coastline on a clear day.

The cities of London and Paris, other towns and buildings and even wind turbines in the English Channel are visible in white owing to the strong reflection of the radar signal.

This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.

Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016-18), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The US State of Washington is under a state of emergency following days of severe wind and rain leading to extensive flooding in parts of the state. The extreme weather was caused by an atmospheric river, a huge plume of moisture extending over the Pacific and into Washington. Different satellites in orbit carry different instruments that can provide us with a wealth of complementary information to understand and to respond to flooding disasters.

The first image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission shows the extent of the floods in the Nooksack River, which spilled over its banks this week and washed out several roads in the process. The flooding forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents and lead to the closure of schools.

More than 158 000 people were affected by power outages and disruptions to other services. The conditions triggered mudslides in the region, prompting the closure of the Interstate 5, but it has since reopened.

Optical satellite instruments such as the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites cannot see through clouds, which is why radar missions like Sentinel-1 are particularly useful. Radar images acquired before and after flooding events offer immediate information on the extent of inundation, thanks to Sentinel-1’s ability to ‘see’ through clouds and rain.

The following radar image uses information from two separate acquisitions captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission on 4 November and 16 November 2021 and shows the extent of the flooding of the Nooksack River in dark blue.

The Copernicus Sentinels are a fleet of dedicated EU-owned satellites, designed to deliver the wealth of data and imagery that are central to the European Union's Copernicus environmental programme.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Sentinel-1B’s first data strip stretches 600 km from 80°N degrees through the Barents Sea. The image, which shows the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago on the left, was captured on 28 April 2016 at 05:37 GMT (07:37 CEST) – just two hours after the satellite’s radar was switched on. Sentinel-1B lifted off on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 25 April at 21:02 GMT (23:02 CEST). It joins its twin, Sentinel-1A, to provide more ‘radar vision’ for Europe’s environmental Copernicus programme.

Read article: Sentinel-1B delivers

Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2016], processed by ESA

London appears as a cluster of bright radar reflections along the River Thames in this radar image from Sentinel-1A. The satellite captured this image on 4 March 2015 in its Interferometric Wide Swath mode and dual polarisation, from which the artificial colour composite was generated.

This image was released to mark the signing, in Paris, of an agreement between ESA and the UK Space Agency that establishes access to data from the Sentinel satellites in the UK. More details:

UK joins Sentinel Collaborative Ground Segment

Credit: Copernicus data/ESA (2015)

The US State of Washington is under a state of emergency following days of severe wind and rain leading to extensive flooding in parts of the state. The extreme weather was caused by an atmospheric river, a huge plume of moisture extending over the Pacific and into Washington. Different satellites in orbit carry different instruments that can provide us with a wealth of complementary information to understand and to respond to flooding disasters.

The first image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission shows the extent of the floods in the Nooksack River, which spilled over its banks this week and washed out several roads in the process. The flooding forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents and lead to the closure of schools.

More than 158 000 people were affected by power outages and disruptions to other services. The conditions triggered mudslides in the region, prompting the closure of the Interstate 5, but it has since reopened.

Optical satellite instruments such as the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites cannot see through clouds, which is why radar missions like Sentinel-1 are particularly useful. Radar images acquired before and after flooding events offer immediate information on the extent of inundation, thanks to Sentinel-1’s ability to ‘see’ through clouds and rain.

This radar image uses information from two separate acquisitions captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission on 4 November and 16 November 2021 and shows the extent of the flooding of the Nooksack River in dark blue.

The Copernicus Sentinels are a fleet of dedicated EU-owned satellites, designed to deliver the wealth of data and imagery that are central to the European Union's Copernicus environmental programme.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

This image captured by Sentinel-1A’s radar on 1 April 2015 shows a central region of California in the US.

The San Andreas Fault – the border between two tectonic plates – is visible as a somewhat straight line running from the upper-left corner of the image to the bottom centre. The Pacific Plate to the west is moving in a northwest direction, while the North American plate to the east is shifting southeast. This horizontal scraping is happening at up to about 5 cm a year in some parts of the fault.

The fault is responsible for the high earthquake risk in the area, including the 6.0 magnitude shock that struck the town of Parkfield in 2004.

Surrounding the fault are the mountains of the Southern Coastal Ranges. With a predominantly Mediterranean climate, these mountains have a range of plant communities including oak woodland, mixed evergreen forests and savannahs.

East of the Ranges is the San Joaquin Valley, where we can see the geometric shapes of large-scale agricultural production. Major crops include grapes, cotton, nuts and fruits, with productivity relying on irrigation from surface water diversions and groundwater pumping from wells.

Drought in recent years has led to water shutoffs and cutbacks, severely hindering yields in what was once the country’s most productive agricultural region.

Further west along the right side of the image are the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

This image is featured on the Earth from Space video programme.

Credit: Copernicus data (2015)/ESA

Sentinel-1B lifted off on a Soyuz rocket, flight VS14, from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 25 April 21:02 GMT (23:02 CEST). With the Sentinel-1 mission designed as a two-satellite constellation, Sentinel-1B will join its identical twin, Sentinel-1A, which was launched two years ago from Kourou. Both satellites carry an advanced radar that images Earth’s surface through cloud and rain regardless of whether it is day or night. By orbiting 180° apart, global coverage and data delivery are optimised for the environmental monitoring Copernicus programme. The mission provides radar imagery for a multitude of services and applications to improve everyday life and understand our changing planet.

Three CubeSats piggybacked a ride on Soyuz. These small satellites, each measuring just 10×10×11 cm, have been developed by university student teams through ESA’s Fly Your Satellite! effort. The other passenger is the Microscope satellite from France’s CNES space agency.

Credit: ESA–Manuel Pedoussaut, 2016

The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission takes us over the Lena River Delta, the largest delta in the Arctic.

At nearly 4500 km long, the Lena River is one of the longest rivers in the world. The river stems from a small mountain lake in southern Russia, and flows northwards before emptying into the Arctic Ocean, via the Laptev Sea.

The river is visible in bright yellow, as it splits and divides into many different channels before meandering towards the sea. Sediments carried by the waters flow through a flat plain, creating the Lena River Delta. Hundreds of small lakes and ponds are visible dotted around the tundra.

This false-colour image was captured on 14 January 2019, the peak of the Arctic winter, and shows a large amount of ice in the waters surrounding the delta. Cracks can be seen in the turquoise-coloured ice at the top of the image, and several icebergs can also be seen floating in the Arctic waters to the right. Snow can also be seen in yellow on the mountains at the bottom of the image.

The delta’s snow-covered tundra is frozen for most of the year, before thawing and blossoming into a fertile wetland during the brief polar summer – a 32 000 sq km haven for Arctic wildlife. Swans, geese and ducks are some of the migratory birds that breed in the productive wetland, which also supports fish and marine mammals.

In 1995, the Lena Delta Reserve was expanded, making it the largest protected area in Russia.

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 is particularly useful for providing imagery for emergency response during extreme weather conditions, or monitoring areas prone to long periods of darkness, in this case, the Arctic.

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

A Red Alert has been declared in southern Chile after an eruption at Villarrica Volcano early on 3 March. Thousands of residents in the area have been evacuated for their safety and the International Charter Space & Major Disasters has been activated by Chile's risk management authority ONEMI.

Further to the operational support provided by the Charter, ESA and the DLR German Aerospace Center have teamed up to acquire and process Sentinel-1A imagery illustrating changes at the surface of the volcano. The image is a colour composite of the two Sentinel-1 scans from 20 February and 4 March; changes are visually enhanced by a Normalised Change Index (NCI) and some statistical computations.

This work was performed by DLR in the framework of the ASAPTERRA project originated by ESA.

Sentinel-1A is the first satellite for Europe’s Copernicus programme. With its radar vision, the Sentinel-1 mission provides an all-weather, day-and-night supply of imagery of Earth’s surface.

Although not yet in routine operations, Sentinel-1A currently provides a coverage every 12 days of relevant tectonic areas worldwide and is therefore very suitable to monitor events such as volcanic eruptions.

Credit: Copernicus data/ESA (2015), map produced by Team Remote Sensing Parameters Georisks of DLR

This Copernicus Sentinel-1 image takes us just south of the US border, to the region of Baja California in northwest Mexico. Its capital city, Mexicali, is visible top left of the image.

This false colour image contains three separate images overlaid on top of each other. Captured on 30 April, 12 May and 17 June, the different colours represent changes that occurred on the ground.

The Colorado River, which forms the border between Baja California and Sonora, can be seen cutting through the rich and colourful patchwork of agricultural land at the top right of the image, before it fans out and splits into multiple streams. Flowing for over 2300 km, the Colorado River rises in the central Rocky Mountains in Colorado, flows through the Grand Canyon before crossing the Mexican border and emptying into the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez.

The Colorado River delta once covered a large area of land and, owing to its nutrients carried downstream, supported a large population of plant and bird life. However today, water that flows is trapped by dams and is used for residential use, electricity generation as well as crop irrigation for the nearby Imperial Valley and Mexicali Valley. The reduction in flow by dams and diversions traps the majority of the river’s sediments before they reach the Gulf of California, impacting water quality.

Copernicus Sentinel-1 is a two-satellite mission, each carrying a radar instrument that can see through clouds and rain. As a constellation of two satellites orbiting 180° apart, the mission can repeat observations every six days, which is also useful for monitoring evolving situations.

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

Soyuz VS14 in the mobile gantry on 24 April 2016.

The Soyuz VS14 mission launching from the Guiana Space Center carries into orbit the Sentinel-1B satellite for the European Commission’s Copernicus Earth Observation Program. In addition to the primary payload, the mission is carrying the MicroSCOPE Satellite and three CubeSats to orbit.

Once in orbit, Sentinel-1B will provide radar images of Earth for Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring programme.

With the Sentinel-1 mission designed as a two-satellite constellation, Sentinel-1B will join its identical twin, Sentinel-1A, which was launched two years ago.

Credit: ESA–Manuel Pedoussaut, 2016

This image taken over part of northeast Greenland’s coast combines three images from Sentinel-1A’s radar on 15 February, 10 March and 3 April 2016.

The shades of grey on the left side of the image depict the static landmass, while the colours on the right show changes in sea-ice type and cover between the three radar scans.

Near the centre-left we can see the Zachariae Isstrom glacier, which is losing about five billion tonnes of ice a year to the ocean.

Zachariae’s dynamics have been changing over the last few years, calving high volumes of icebergs, which will inevitably affect sea levels. It is estimated that the entire Zachariae Isstrom glacier in northeast Greenland holds enough water to raise global sea levels by more than 46 cm.

Scientists have determined that the bottom of Zachariae Isstrom is being rapidly eroded by warmer ocean water mixed with growing amounts of meltwater from the ice sheet surface.

Zachariae and the nearby Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden to its north are two of six glaciers being monitored in near-real time by Sentinel-1 through a new web portal by the UK’s Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling. The portal provides frequent maps of ice velocity of key glaciers in both Greenland and Antarctica.

The polar regions are some of the first to experience and visibly demonstrate the effects of climate change, serving as barometers for change in the rest of the world. It is therefore critical that polar ice is monitored comprehensively and in a sustained manner.

This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.

Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016), processed by ESA

A crack in the Larsen-C ice shelf in on the Antarctic Peninsula first appeared several years ago, but recently it has been lengthening faster than before. Carrying radar that can ‘see’ through the dark, the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites are monitoring the situation. This animation shows that the fissure has opened around 60 km since January last year. And, since the beginning of this January it has split a further 20 km so that the 350 m-thick shelf is held only by a thread. The crack now extends around 175 km.

When the ice shelf calves this iceberg it will be one of the largest ever recorded – but exactly how long this will take is difficult to predict. The neighbouring Larsen-A and Larsen-B ice shelves suffered a similar fate with dramatic calving events in 1995 and 2002, respectively.

These ice shelves are important because they act as buttresses, holding back the ice that flows towards the sea.

The Sentinel-1 two-satellite constellation is indispensable for discovering and monitoring events like these because it continues to deliver radar images when Antarctica is shrouded in darkness for several months of the year.

Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016–17), processed by ESA

This image from Sentinel-1A’s radar captures part of Germany’s state of Bavaria, with the city of Munich on the right and Augsburg at the centre.

Munich is located on the elevated plains just north of the Alps. Zooming in, we can clearly see the river Isar running through the city.

Along the northern part of this river, the white radar reflections from buildings give way to an elongated area of vegetation. This is the English Garden, a public park created in 1789 with an informal landscape of a style that was popular in Britain from the mid-18th century to the early 19th century. With an area of over 3.5 sq km, it is one of the world’s largest urban public parks.

Outside the city – particularly to the east and south – we can see circular areas cut out of the forest to make space for villages.

The landscape across this area was shaped by glaciers, including the two large lakes south of Munich – Lake Starnberg to the east and Ammersee to the west – that are the results of ice-age glaciers melting. Lake Starnberg is a popular recreation area for Munich, and has been named a wetland of international importance by the Ramsar Convention.

The Convention is an intergovernmental treaty for the sustainable use of wetlands.

This image, also featured on the Earth from Space video programme, combines three radar scans from the Sentinel-1A satellite in March and April 2015.

The Chinese city of Tianjin is captured in this Sentinel-1A radar image created by combining three scans over several months.

The city sits to the west of the Bohai Bay within the Bohai Gulf, off of the Yellow Sea. With a population of over 14 million people, this megacity is among China’s five largest.

Urban areas are home to over half of the world’s population, and are rapidly changing environments. As more people move from rural areas to cities, this growth needs to be monitored to help it proceed on a sustainable basis.

High-resolution satellite data provide essential information for city planning and for the sustainable development of urban regions. Radar in particular can be used to monitor slight ground movements down to a few millimetres – valuable information for urban planners and for risk assessment.

Zooming in on the upper right, we can see different colours in the geometric agricultural fields, showing changes between the three acquisitions (22 October 2014, 14 January 2015 and 7 February 2015) that make up this image.

In this area, the black shapes show divided areas covered in water, which are possibly shrimp or fish farms. Bohai Bay was traditionally home to the country’s richest fisheries, but pollution, overfishing and land reclamation has diminished this economic activity.

Farther south, we can see numerous dots in the water – radar reflections from the boats coming to and from the Port of Tianjin. This massive maritime gateway handles hundreds of millions of tonnes of cargo each year, and is the largest in northern China.

On the central-left side of the image, the black and bright green areas are water reservoirs. The upcoming Sentinel-2 mission – set for launch on 22 June – will be used to support the sustainable management of water resources by providing measurements of water quality and detecting changes.

This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2015/06/Earth_from_Space...

Credit: Copernicus data (2014/2015)/ESA

Soyuz VS14 upper composite in the S3B preparation building in preparation for the 22 April 2016 launch.

Once in orbit, it will provide radar images of Earth for Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring programme.

With the Sentinel-1 mission designed as a two-satellite constellation, Sentinel-1B will join its identical twin, Sentinel-1A, which was launched two years ago.

More about Sentinel-1:

www.esa.int/sentinel1

Credit: ESA–Manuel Pedoussaut, 2016

The Copernicus Sentinel-1D satellite has joined the Sentinel-1 mission in orbit. Launch took place on 4 November 2025 at 22:02 CET (18:02 local time) on board an Ariane 6 launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

The Sentinel-1 mission delivers high-resolution radar images of Earth’s surface, performing in all weathers, day-and-night. This service is used by disaster response teams, environmental agencies, maritime authorities and climate scientists, who depend on frequent updates of critical data.

Sentinel-1D will work in tandem with Sentinel-1C, flying in the same orbit but 180° apart, to optimise global coverage and data delivery. Both satellites have a C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instrument on board, which captures high-resolution imagery of Earth’s surface. They are also equipped with Automatic Identification System (AIS) instruments to improve detection and tracking of ships. When Sentinel-1D is fully operational, it will enable more frequent AIS observations, including data on vessel identity, location and direction of passage, enabling precise tracking.

Sentinel-1D was launched on Europe’s heavy-lift rocket Ariane 6 on flight designated VA265.

Credit: ESA - S. Corvaja

Sentinel-1A radar satellite test image taken on 26 May 2016, recorded and relayed to Earth by EDRS-A on 31 May 2016 via laser. The image covers the island of La Reunion and surrounding waters, and was acquired in ‘Stripmap’ mode. A false-colour composite based on the radar’s two polarisation channels.

Read more: Europe’s SpaceDataHighway relays first Sentinel-1 images via laser

Credit: Copernicus Sentinel data (2016), processed by ESA

Sentinel-1B satellite lowered onto Fregat upper stage in preparation for the 22 April 2016 launch. This stage of the launch campaign took place on Thursday 14 April in the S3B preparation building of the Guiana Space Centre.

Once in orbit, it will provide radar images of Earth for Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring programme.

With the Sentinel-1 mission designed as a two-satellite constellation, Sentinel-1B will join its identical twin, Sentinel-1A, which was launched two years ago.

Credit: ESA–Manuel Pedoussaut, 2016

Sentinel-1B lifted off on a Soyuz rocket, flight VS14, from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 25 April 21:02 GMT (23:02 CEST). With the Sentinel-1 mission designed as a two-satellite constellation, Sentinel-1B will join its identical twin, Sentinel-1A, which was launched two years ago from Kourou. Both satellites carry an advanced radar that images Earth’s surface through cloud and rain regardless of whether it is day or night. By orbiting 180° apart, global coverage and data delivery are optimised for the environmental monitoring Copernicus programme. The mission provides radar imagery for a multitude of services and applications to improve everyday life and understand our changing planet.

Three CubeSats piggybacked a ride on Soyuz. These small satellites, each measuring just 10×10×11 cm, have been developed by university student teams through ESA’s Fly Your Satellite! effort. The other passenger is the Microscope satellite from France’s CNES space agency.

Credit: ESA–Manuel Pedoussaut, 2016

This image from the Sentinel-1A satellite shows the capital of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing. It is one of the most populous cities in the world with over 21 million people, but during the Chinese new year or ‘Spring Festival’, millions travel from the big cities back to their hometowns to spend the holiday with their families in what is considered the world’s largest annual migration.

This image is a compilation of three scans by Sentinel-1A’s radar from 8 October, 13 November and 31 December 2014.

Credit: Copernicus data/ESA (2014)

Part of Italy’s Molise, Apulia and Campania regions are pictured in this radar composite image from Sentinel-1A.

The area features two distinct types of terrain: the Apennine Mountains in the lower left and lowlands to the right. Known for its agricultural importance, the lowland area is known as the Tavoliere – a term that recalls the word tavolo meaning ‘table’. The word derives from the Latin term for tables on which Romans classified areas devoted to grazing or crops, called Tabulae censuariae.

During the Middle Ages the area was mainly devoted to sheep farming. Following extensive work on fluvial regulation, wheat, tomatoes and olives, among other crops, are grown here today.

Water bodies appear black in this radar image, such as the Adriatic Sea along the top. Separated from the sea by a thin strip of land is Lake Lésina – in the top right – which is famous for its eels.

Other lakes visible are Occhito (centre) and Guardialfiera (centre left).

Bright white radar reflects show to the location of towns and cities. In the Apennines, we can see reflections come from Campobasso (lower left). Cities in the lowland and along the coast are more obvious.

This image combines three radar scans from the Sentinel-1A satellite in October and December 2014. Focusing on the right side of the image, we can see how different colours represent changes between the acquisitions in the agricultural structures, due to plant growth or harvest.

Credit: Copernicus data (2014)/ESA

Sentinel-1B lifted off on a Soyuz rocket, flight VS14, from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 25 April 2016 at 21:02 GMT (23:02 CEST).

Credit: ESA–Manuel Pedoussaut, 2016

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

With Christmas almost here, the red and white of this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image bring a festive feel to this week’s image featuring Tromsø – the largest city in northern Norway.

This false-colour image was processed in a way that included the near-infrared channel, which makes vegetation appear bright red. The snow over the surrounding mountains is visible in white, adding to the Christmassy feel of the image.

Most of Tromsø, lies on the island of Tromsøya, visible at the top of the image. Owing to its northerly location, the city is a popular area to experience the majestic phenomenon of the aurora borealis, or northern lights.

Tromsø is over 300 km north of the Arctic Circle. During the winter, it’s shrouded in darkness – the Sun sets in late-November and doesn’t rise again until January. The image was captured on 15 October 2019, which means it is one of the last images that Sentinel-2 could acquire before darkness descended.

During the long winter months, the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission is used to monitor this region instead of Sentinel-2. As an advanced radar mission, Copernicus Sentinel-1 can image the surface of Earth through cloud and rain and regardless of whether it is day or night.

In September 2019, the German research icebreaker Polarstern left from Tromsø for a mammoth Arctic expedition. The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition involves the icebreaker spending a year drifting in the Arctic sea ice.

Spearheaded by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), MOSAiC is the biggest shipborne polar expedition of all time. The data gathered during the expedition will be used by scientists around the world to study the Arctic as the epicentre of global warming and gain fundamental insights that are key to better understand global climate change.

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

Stockholm appears as a cluster of bright yellow radar reflections in the lower section of this image from Sentinel-1A. The satellite captured this image on 21 February 2015 in its Interferometric Wide Swath mode and dual polarisation, from which the artificial colour composite was generated.

Credit: Copernicus data/ESA (2015)

Successive radar images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite during December 2014 – March 2016 were used to create this spectacular map showing how fast the ice flows on the Antarctic Peninsula. The map was constructed by tracking the movement of ice features in pairs of radar images taken 12 days apart.

The Antarctic Peninsula is a narrow mountainous finger or spine of land extending northwards away from the Central Antarctic ice sheet (lower right corner) and comprises the northernmost arm of the Antarctic ice sheet.

The colour scale indicates the speed of ice movement in metres per day, ranging from 1 centimetre per day or less in dark blue to up to 1 metre per day in red. The vivid colours trace a complex network of channels along which streams of ice flow from the high mountains down towards the coast where the ice flow speeds up and spreads out into floating ice shelves.

The white area on the western flank of the peninsula is where snowfall is likely to have concealed features and so prevented tracking between the image pairs.

As one of the most dynamic glacial environments on Earth, this region has been experiencing rapid climate warming over recent decades. Since 1991, satellites such as ESA’s ERS and Envisat have observed the disintegration of various ice shelves, including the northern portion of the Larsen ice shelf and the Wilkins ice shelf.

The Sentinel satellites, developed by ESA, are central to Europe’s environmental monitoring Copernicus programme, which is committed to long-term operational services for a wide range of applications.

This example shows the spectacular potential of the Sentinel-1 mission for routine mapping and monitoring the surface velocity of glaciers and ice sheets. The combination of Sentinel-1A and -1B will support comprehensive and long-term monitoring of changes in ice sheet velocity and how they respond to climate change.

The Sentinel-1 ice velocity product was presented at ESA’s Living Planet Symposium in Prague, Czech Republic in May 2016 and three weeks earlier at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Austria.

Nagler T., Rott H., Hetzenecker M., Wuite J. (2016) Monitoring ice motion of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets at high spatial and temporal resolution by means of Sentinel-1 SAR. Living Planet Symposium, Abstract. ESA 2016. lps16.esa.int/page_session185.php#1218p

Wuite, J., Nagler, T., Hetzenecker, M., Blumthaler, U., Rott, H. (2016): Continuous monitoring of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet velocities using Sentinel-1 SAR. Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 18, EGU2016 –12826, 2016.

Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2015), processed by Enveo

Captured just yesterday, 19 March, at 17:11 GMT (18:11 CET) by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, this image shows the oil spill from the Grande America vessel. The Italian container ship, carrying 2200 tonnes of heavy fuel, caught fire and sank in the Atlantic, about 300 km off the French coast on 12 March.

Copernicus Sentinel-1 acquired this radar image of the oil slick, the large, dark patch visible in the centre of the image, stretching about 50 km. Marine vessels are identifiable as smaller white points, which could be those assisting in the clean-up process.

Oil is still emerging from the ship now lying at a depth of around 4500 metres. French authorities trying to reduce the impact of pollution along the coast.

Sentinel-1 is a two-satellite constellation built for the European Commission’s Copernicus environmental monitoring programme. The identical satellites each carry an advanced radar instrument that can ‘see’ through the dark and through clouds.

Satellite radar is particularly useful for monitoring the progression of oil spills because the presence of oil on the sea surface dampens down wave motion. Since radar basically measures surface texture, oil slicks show up well – as black smears on a grey background.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by ESA,CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The Copernicus Sentinel-1D satellite has joined the Sentinel-1 mission in orbit. Launch took place on 4 November 2025 at 22:02 CET (18:02 local time) on board an Ariane 6 launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

The Sentinel-1 mission delivers high-resolution radar images of Earth’s surface, performing in all weathers, day-and-night. This service is used by disaster response teams, environmental agencies, maritime authorities and climate scientists, who depend on frequent updates of critical data.

Sentinel-1D will work in tandem with Sentinel-1C, flying in the same orbit but 180° apart, to optimise global coverage and data delivery. Both satellites have a C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instrument on board, which captures high-resolution imagery of Earth’s surface. They are also equipped with Automatic Identification System (AIS) instruments to improve detection and tracking of ships. When Sentinel-1D is fully operational, it will enable more frequent AIS observations, including data on vessel identity, location and direction of passage, enabling precise tracking.

Sentinel-1D was launched on Europe’s heavy-lift rocket Ariane 6 on flight designated VA265.

Credit: ESA - S. Corvaja

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)

Jakobshavn Glacier in west Greenland viewed by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission on 29 April 2019. In recent years, Greenland has been losing more ice through this glacier than from anywhere else on this huge ice sheet. Various types of satellite data have been used to understand and monitor the glacier’s flow over the last 20 years. This revealed that the glacier was flowing at its fastest and losing the most ice in 2012–13. In places, the main trunk of the glacier was deflating by 10 m a year as it adjusted dynamically to ice loss and melting. However, information from satellites such as ESA’s CryoSat and the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission show that between 2013 and 2017, the region drained by the glacier stopped shrinking in height and started to thicken. The overall effect is that Jakobshavn is now flowing more slowly, thickening, and advancing toward the ocean instead of retreating farther inland.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA

Sentinel-1B lifted off on a Soyuz rocket, flight VS14, from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 25 April 21:02 GMT (23:02 CEST). With the Sentinel-1 mission designed as a two-satellite constellation, Sentinel-1B will join its identical twin, Sentinel-1A, which was launched two years ago from Kourou. Both satellites carry an advanced radar that images Earth’s surface through cloud and rain regardless of whether it is day or night. By orbiting 180° apart, global coverage and data delivery are optimised for the environmental monitoring Copernicus programme. The mission provides radar imagery for a multitude of services and applications to improve everyday life and understand our changing planet.

Three CubeSats piggybacked a ride on Soyuz. These small satellites, each measuring just 10×10×11 cm, have been developed by university student teams through ESA’s Fly Your Satellite! effort. The other passenger is the Microscope satellite from France’s CNES space agency.

Credit: ESA–Manuel Pedoussaut, 2016

Witnessed by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission on 12 July 2017, a lump of ice more than twice the size of Luxembourg has broken off the Larsen-C ice shelf, spawning one of the largest icebergs on record and changing the outline of the Antarctic Peninsula forever. The iceberg weighs more than a million million tonnes and contains almost as much water as Lake Ontario in North America. Since the ice shelf is already floating, this giant iceberg will not affect sea level. However, because ice shelves are connected to the glaciers and ice streams on the mainland and so play an important role in ‘buttressing’ the ice as it creeps seaward, effectively slowing the flow. If large portions of an ice shelf are removed by calving, the inflow of glaciers can speed up and contribute to sea-level rise. About 10% of the Larsen C shelf has now gone.

Read more: Sentinel satellite captures birth of behemoth iceberg

Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The Sentinel-1 radar satellite mission takes us over Orange County and surrounding areas in the US state of California.

Two prominent geological features are visible here: the coastal plains of the Los Angeles Basin in the upper-central left, and the Santa Ana Mountains running from the upper left to the lower right.

A typical feature of Pacific Coast mountain ranges like Santa Ana is a moister western slope and drier eastern slope – reflected in this radar image by the more prominent colours on the left side of the mountain range. This is due to air masses from the Pacific bringing precipitation to the land, while the mountains force the clouds to rise and produce rain and block them from moving further east, causing a ‘rain shadow’ and thus drier areas on the other side.

To respond to dry conditions in California and all over the world, populations rely on dams and reservoirs to control the water supply. In satellite imagery, these water bodies are easy to identify by the straight-cut line of the dam blocking water flow – two of which are visible in the centre-right part of the image.

Three passes by Sentinel-1’s radar from 21 December 2014, 2 January 2015 and 14 January 2015 were combined to create this image. Each image was assigned a colour – red, green and blue – and changes on the ground that occurred between passes appear as different colours.

One obvious example of changes can be seen in the boats in the water on the left side of the image, appearing in the three different colours depending on when they were present.

In other parts of the image we can see colours in agricultural fields showing changes in vegetation between the acquisitions.

This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.

Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2014-15), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO