A small gift and a conundrum for all the fellows photographers who will enjoy it.

I have been using an app on my Android smartphone for the last few years - an app called ISS live now, which allow me to watch the Earth from one of the cameras of the International Space Station, following its motion above us. One can take photographs or videos of our precious, beautiful mother planet from space. While I am never tired of watching and daydreaming from such a privileged point of view, I tried to take some shots some years ago, capturing the stunning beauty of a sunrise from space. This is the best shot of that small series, sporting the diamond of the rising sun at the horizon and showing how thin and fragile our all-important atmosphere is.

Now for the conundrum: may I call this one a photo of mine? May I count it as a work of mine? Contrary to my habit of processing my photos, this one is SOOC - not even cropped.

Hope that you enjoy this, both the photo and the attached conundrum... Have a nice Sunday and remind that every day, even the darkest one, may have a little miracle in store for you.

Today at 05:30. Central/west/south Netherlands. It's very obvious from where you can and can't see a beautiful starry night sky...

Credit: ESA/NASA

This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image features the Japanese island of Nishinoshima, in the northwest Pacific Ocean.

One of the Ogasawara Islands, Nishinoshima is a small uninhabited volcanic island roughly 1000 km south of Tokyo. Volcanic activity along the western edge of the Pacific Ring of Fire gave rise to this island, which is in fact the tip of a submerged volcano.

Until 1974, only a part of the ridge of the otherwise submerged caldera was visible, and the island was about 700 m long and 200 m wide. Since then, Nishinoshima has experienced alternating periods of explosive activity and calm, but lava from various eruptions over the years has led to the island growing bigger.

This image was acquired in January 2021 and here the island is around 2.3 km in the north-south direction and 2 km in the east-west direction.

The yellowish discolouration of the water around the island is due to volcanic minerals, gas and seafloor sediment that is being stirred up by the volcanic activity. It stretches for about 10 km to the southeast, where ocean currents turn it into bright green swirls.

A plume of gas and steam can be seen rising from the volcano and drifting northeast over the Pacific Ocean. As the plume rises higher, the steam condenses and forms clouds.

Volcanic plumes are of particular concern to the airline industry because ash can contaminate oxygen supplies and damage jet engines. Atmospheric sensors on satellites can identify the gases and aerosols released by eruptions, quantify their wider environmental impact and can help provide early warnings to the aviation industry.

Satellite data can also be used to better understand volcanic activity. Optical and radar instruments can image lava flows, mudslides, ground fissures and earthquakes, and be used to assess damage.

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

Wildfires burning on the Greek island of Rhodes have forced the evacuation of thousands of people as flames have spread from the island’s mountainous region to the coast. The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captured this image of the ongoing blaze yesterday 23 July 2023.

The image has been processed by combining natural colour bands with shortwave-infrared information to highlight the fire front. The image shows the extent of the burned area (visible in shades of brown) in the central part of the island, with a preliminary estimate of 11 000 hectares lost at the time of acquisition.

Residents and tourists took refuge in schools and temporary shelters on Sunday, with many evacuated on private boats, as flames threatened coastal villages and holiday resorts.

In response to the fires, the Copernicus Emergency Mapping Service was activated. The service uses satellite observations to help civil protection authorities and, in cases of disaster, the international humanitarian community, respond to emergencies.

Air temperatures over the past week have exceeded 40°C in many parts of Greece. In addition to Rhodes, wildfires are also burning near Athens and on the island of Corfu.

The Sentinel-2 mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites, each carrying an innovative wide swath high-resolution multispectral imager with 13 spectral bands for monitoring changes in Earth’s land and vegetation.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the Galápagos Islands – a volcanic archipelago situated some 1000 km west of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean.

The archipelago consists of 13 major islands and a handful of smaller islands and islets scattered across approximately 60 000 sq km of ocean. Repeated volcanic eruptions and ongoing seismic activity have helped form the rugged mountain landscape of the islands. In this image, captured on 23 September 2020, several circular volcanic cones can be seen atop the islands.

The largest island of the archipelago, Isabela (Albemarle), is visible in the centre. Around 132 km in length, the island’s seahorse shape is the result of the merging of multiple large volcanoes into a single land mass. The five volcanoes seen on the island are (from north to south): Wolf Volcano, Darwin Volcano, Alcedo Volcano, Sierra Negra Volcano and Cerro Azul Volcano. Two of the island’s volcanoes, Ecuador and Wolf, lie directly on the Equator.

At the southern end of the island, hills covered with forests can be seen in bright green, separating the Sierra Negra, the most active of the Galapagos volcanoes, from the sandy coastline (partially visible here owing to cloud cover). Tortuga Island, named for its distinct shape, can be seen southeast from Isabela. The tiny island is actually a collapsed volcano that is a nesting location for a variety of seabirds.

The second largest island of the archipelago, Santa Cruz, can be seen to the right of Isabela. Its capital, Puerto Ayora (not visible), is the most populated urban centre in the islands.

The Galápagos Islands are best known for their diverse array of plant and animal species, many of which are endemic meaning they are not found anywhere else in the world. These include the giant Galapagos tortoise, the marine iguana, the flightless cormorant and the Galapagos penguin – the only species of penguin that lives north of the equator.

These species were observed by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the HMS Beagle in 1835 and inspired his theory of evolution by natural selection. To preserve the unique wildlife on the islands, the Ecuadorian government made the entire archipelago a national park in 1959.

Copernicus Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission. Each satellite carries a high-resolution camera that images Earth’s surface in 13 spectral bands. The mission is mostly used to track changes in the way land is being used and to monitor the health of our vegetation.

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

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image features the diverse landscape surrounding Monterrey, the capital of the northeast state of Nuevo León, Mexico.

This image, acquired on 5 March 2023, shows a region which combines mountain ranges, agricultural plains, arid areas, as well as densely populated urban centres.

The metropolitan area of Monterrey, visible in shades of grey in the centre of the image, is the second largest in Mexico with around five million inhabitants. It is crossed by the Santa Catarina River, which is usually fed by flowing underground water, although the river was predominantly dry when this image was acquired.

Monterrey is 540 m above sea level and is nestled at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the folded mountain range that can be seen in the bottom-left of the image.

The Cumbres de Monterrey National Park lies in the northern part of the Sierra Madre Oriental and includes the famous Cerro de la Silla (or Saddle Mountain), which dominates Monterrey’s skyline. The park is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and provides approximately 50% of the water consumed in Monterrey and its metropolitan area.

The grey area visible west of the park is the city of Saltillo, the capital of the Mexican state of Coahuila. Saltillo is one of the most industrialised areas in the country and, thanks to its dry and cool climate, has become a popular holiday destination.

The region south of the park appears mostly arid, with only a few centre-pivot irrigation fields visible in the brown areas in the bottom of the image. On the contrary, numerous agricultural areas stand out in the right of the image, with many square-shaped fields thickening along the course of small rivers and canals.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Credit: ESA/NASA

Glasgow, host of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP26), is featured in this image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.

Situated in west-central Scotland, Glasgow is the largest city in the country. It lies along both banks of the River Clyde, the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom and the third-longest in Scotland. The city occupies much of the lower Clyde valley, and its suburbs extend into the surrounding districts.

Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital, can be seen in the centre-right of the image, located in Lothian on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth. Both Edinburgh and Glasgow, along with Stirling and Dundee, all lie in the Central Lowlands, where over half of Scotland’s population lives.

The Highlands, visible in the upper-left of the image, is the largest region in Scotland covering more than 25 600 sq km of land and is home to stunning scenery. The area is divided in two parts: the Great Glen divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the northwest Highlands. The area is very sparsely populated, with many mountain ranges dominating the region and includes the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis, as well as the legendary Loch Ness.

From 31 October to 12 November, the COP26 summit will take place in Glasgow – bringing together parties to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

As in previous years, ESA will have a strong presence at COP26. ESA’s theme at COP26 will be ‘Taking the pulse of the planet from space and supporting climate action’ which aims to demonstrate the role of ESA’s missions and satellite data to strengthen our understanding of climate from space. This will support policymakers, society, businesses and communities to mitigate and adapt to a changing climate and develop resilience in support of the UNFCC Paris agreement.

During COP26, the much-anticipated documentary which covers the ESA-led science expedition to the Gorner Glacier in Switzerland will be released for the first time. The documentary follows ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, along with Susanne Mecklenburg, Head of ESA’s Climate Office, and their scientific team to one of the biggest ice masses in the Alps: the Gorner Glacier. Owing to its dramatic retreat, the glacier is one of the most extensively studies glaciers in the world. Read more about the expedition and watch the documentary trailer.

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

This Sentinel-2A false colour image features the city of Berlin.

As well as being Germany’s capital and its largest city, Berlin is also considered the cultural centre of the country. The city lost its capital status in 1945, but became the capital again on 3 October 1990 when Germany was reunified following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Reunification is celebrated every year.

Reminders of the city’s turbulent 20th-century history include the Holocaust Memorial and the Berlin Wall’s graffitied remains. The 18th-century grand classical Brandenburg Gate in the western part of the city centre has become a symbol of reunification.

Berlin is also known for its art scene, nightlife, modern architecture, media and science. Home to renowned universities, orchestras, museums, entertainment venues, and host to many sporting events, the city has become a sought-after location for international film productions.

In the Mitte district, which is the historical heart of the city, the Tiergarten park is clearly visible. It was once a hunting ground in West Berlin, but today it is a favourite among locals thanks to its central location. It is a park of great beauty with lawns, meadows, ponds, flowerbeds, landscaped gardens and home to the Berlin Zoo.

The image clearly shows how green the city is, with the two large lakes – the Tegeler See and the Wannsee – on its western side. Only 7 km from the centre is Tegel International Airport, surrounded by a large highly vegetated area.

The former military airport, visible in the lower central part of the image, is now a public park, and not for the first time in its history. Originally, the Tempelhofer Feld was also a parade ground. As soon as the military cleared the site, the locals would swarm in thousands to enjoy their free time. After the airport closed in 2008, the city reclaimed this huge open space, comprising an ex-hangar, which is now one of the world’s largest buildings used for exhibitions.

With three entrances open from sunrise to sunset, it is a space nearly three times the size of London’s Hyde Park, including a 6 km trail for cycling, skating and jogging, a BBQ area, a dog-walking field and an enormous picnic area for all visitors. An area that was off-limits to locals for a century now allows everyone to roller-blade down a runway or barbecue sausages in the shade of an airport terminal.

The Spree River snakes its way across the entire image. Museum Island lies in the middle of the river, with the Berlin Cathedral and five museums. Since 1999, the museum complex has been the only architectural and cultural ensemble that is part of UNESCO world heritage.

Captured by Sentinel-2A on 9 July 2015, this image is featured on the Earth from Space video programme.

Credit: Copernicus Sentinel data (2015)/ESA

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Carrara – an Italian city known especially for its world-famous marble.

Carrara lies along the Carrione River, in northern Tuscany, around 130 km from Florence. It can be seen just above the centre of the image, stretching into the mountains.

The city is famous for its white or blue-grey marble, called Carrara, taken from nearby quarries in the Apuan Alps, a mountain range that stretches for approximately 55 km and reaching around 2000 m high. What appears as snow cover on the rugged mountains is actually bright white marble, contrasting with Tuscany’s lush green vegetation.

Carrara marble is one of the most prestigious marbles in the world, with its quarries producing more marble than any other place on Earth. The unique stone was formed by calcite-rich shells left behind by marine organisms when they die. When water bodies evaporate, the deposited remains form limestone, and when buried under multi-tonne layers of rock, the intense heat and pressure cause the limestone to metamorphose into marble.

The special quality of the Carrara marble has made it a popular resource for many famous sculptures, including Michelangelo’s Pietà, and has been used for some of the most remarkable buildings in Ancient Rome, including the Pantheon and Trajan’s Column.

Also featured in this summery image from Sentinel-2 are the towns of Forte dei Marmi, Pietrasanta, Lido di Camaiore and Viareggio. Marina di Carrara, southwest of the city, is a beach resort on the Ligurian Sea, with port facilities for transporting and shipping marble. The most popular resorts and beaches nearby are those at Marina di Carrara and Marina di Massa, both of which become very crowded during the summer, especially with Italian holidaymakers. La Spezia, a major naval base and the second largest city in the Liguria region, is visible in the top-left of the image.

Copernicus Sentinel-2 is based on a constellation of two identical satellites in the same orbit, 180° apart for optimal coverage and data delivery. Together they cover all Earth’s land surfaces, large islands, inland and coastal waters every five days at the equator.

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

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

The Tana River, Kenya’s longest river, is featured in this false-colour image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.

The Tana River flows for around 1000 km from the Aberdare Mountains, west of Nyeri, running eastwards before veering south around the massif of Mount Kenya, and opening onto a wide valley, pictured here, where it meanders through a floodplain often subject to inundation. The river then continues its journey before entering the Indian Ocean at Formosa Bay, Kipini.

The river is known for its extraordinary biodiversity, as it provides water and life for wild animals, nomads and their livestock, as well as for agricultural purposes.

Some of the Tana’s tributaries as well as several smaller, seasonal rivers, known as lagas, that only flow during the rainy season, are visible flowing in an east-west direction in the image. The river beds support livestock and wildlife during the dry season owing to their ability to retain water.

This false-colour image, captured on 25 February 2020, was processed in a way that included the near-infrared channel. This type of band combination from Copernicus Sentinel-2 is most commonly used to assess plant density and health, as plants reflect near-infrared and green light, while absorbing red. Since they reflect more near-infrared than green, dense, plant-covered land appears in bright red.

It is easy to pick out the narrow band of riparian forest visible along the banks of the river in the image. The riparian forest usually thrives year-round, although its extent is highly dependent on seasonal flooding and ground water recharge by the Tana.

This image was captured during the area’s wet season, where the small tributaries of the Tana are highly visible and a significant amount of vegetation can be seen. If the image had been captured during the dry season (around June-September), the smaller tributaries and the vegetation growing around them would have dried up.

The river flows alongside the town of Garissa, the capital of Garissa County, and is visible as a greyish patch of land on the east side of the river. Around 5 km south of Garissa lies the Bour-Algi Giraffe Sanctuary, home to around 1000 giraffes and endangered wildlife including the Rothschild giraffe and gerenuk – a long-necked antelope found in the region.

Copernicus Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission. Each satellite carries a high-resolution camera that images Earth’s surface in 13 spectral bands. The mission is mostly used to track changes in the way land is being used and to monitor the health of vegetation.

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

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

This image, captured on 2 April 2021 by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, shows the latest activity in Italy’s Mount Etna. The image has been processed using the mission’s shortwave-infrared band to show the ongoing activity in the crater. Smoke plumes can be seen blowing eastwards towards the town of Giarre.

Read full story: Satellites monitor Mount Etna’s unpredictable behaviour

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

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Credits: ESA/NASA

This spectacular image of Earth was captured by the Meteosat Second Generation series of missions on 23 March 2022.

Satellites provide essential information for everyday applications, improving agricultural practices, to help when disasters strike, and thanks to the Meteosat series, provide crucial data for weather forecasting.

Given that extreme weather and severe storms pose significant and increasing hazards to society, the Meteosat satellites provide detailed, full disc imagery over Europe and Africa every 15 minutes and rapid scan imagery over Europe every five minutes.

This imagery is crucial for nowcasting, which is about detecting rapidly high impact weather and predicting its evolution a few hours ahead, in support of the safety of life and property. These observations are also used for weather forecasting and climate monitoring.

The Meteosat missions have guaranteed the continuous flow of data for weather forecasting since 1977, and later this year, we will soon begin a new era in weather and climate monitoring with Meteosat Third Generation (MTG).

The third generation will not only guarantee the continuity of data for weather forecasting, but offer significant enhancement of the current imager capabilities, an all-new infrared sounding capability and real-time lightning imaging for early detection of severe storms as they develop.

For the overall MTG mission two types of satellite are being developed; the Imaging satellite (MTG-I) and the Sounding Satellite (MTG-S). MTG-I1 is currently at Thales Alenia Space’s facilities in Cannes, France, undergoing an extensive testing campaign to ensure that the satellite will survive the rigours of the launch and the hostile environment of space.

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

Credits: EUMETSAT/ESA

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

This image uses data from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission’s radiometer instrument and shows the land surface temperature across Europe and parts of northern Africa in the morning of 10 July 2023. Land surface temperatures hit 46°C in Rome, Italy, while Madrid and Seville reached 46 and 47°C, respectively.

Owing to the time difference between the acquisitions of the three swaths that capture the entire area, temperatures between countries are not directly comparable.

While weather forecasts use predicted air temperatures, this satellite instrument measures the real amount of energy radiating from Earth – and depicts the real temperature of the land surface. Therefore, the map shows the actual temperature of the land’s surface which is significantly hotter than air temperatures.

Read full story

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The heavy snowfall that hit Spain a few days ago still lies heavy across much of the country as this Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite image shows.

While the idea of snuggling under a blanket in the cold winter months is very appealing, the blanket that covers half of Spain is not remotely comforting. This satellite image, captured on 12 January at 11:40 CET, shows how much of the country is still facing hazardous conditions following the snow that fell at the weekend – the heaviest snowfall the country has had in five decades.

Storm Filomena hit Spain over the weekend, covering a large part of the country in thick snow. Madrid one of the worst affected areas (see satellite image), was brought to a standstill with the airport having to be closed, trains cancelled and roads blocked.

People in central Spain are struggling as a deep freeze follows the heavy snow. Yesterday, the temperature plunged to –25°C in Molina de Aragón and Teruel, in mountains east of Madrid – Spain's coldest night for at least 20 years.

Copernicus Sentinel-3 is a two-satellite mission. Each satellite carries a suite of cutting-edge instruments to measure systematically Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere to monitor and understand large-scale global dynamics. For example, with a swath width of 1270 km, the ocean and land colour instrument, which acquired the two tiles for this image, provides global coverage every two days.

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

Northwest Greenland is featured in this icy image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission.

Lying in the North Atlantic Ocean, Greenland is the world’s largest island and is home to the second largest ice sheet after Antarctica. Greenland’s ice sheet covers more than 1.7 million sq km and covers most of the island.

Ice sheets form in areas where snow that falls in winter does not melt entirely over the summer. Over thousands of years, layers of snow pile up into thick masses of ice, growing thicker and denser as the new snow and ice layers compress the older layers.

Ice sheets are constantly in motion. Near the coast, most of the ice moves through relatively fast-moving outlets called ice streams, glaciers and ice shelves.

In the top centre of this image, captured on 29 July 2019, the Petermann glacier is visible. Petermann is one of the largest glaciers connecting the Greenland ice sheet with the Arctic Ocean. Upon reaching the sea, a number of these large outlet glaciers extend into the water with a floating ‘ice tongue’. Icebergs occasionally break or ‘calve’ off these tongues.

In this image, sea ice and icebergs can be seen in the Nares Strait – the waterway between Greenland and Canada’s Ellesmere Island, visible top left in the image.

On the tip of Ellesmere Island lies Alert – the northernmost known settlement in the world. Inhabited mainly by military and scientific personnel on rotation, Alert is about 800 km from the closest community, which is roughly the same distance from Alert to the North Pole.

Scientists have used data from Earth-observing satellites to monitor Greenland’s ice sheet. According to a recent study, both Greenland and Antarctica are losing mass six times faster than they were in 1990s. Between 1992 and 2017, Greenland lost 3.8 trillion tonnes of ice – corresponding to around 10 mm contribution to global sea-level rise.

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. The continued satellite observations of the Greenland ice sheet are critical in understanding whether ice mass loss will continue to accelerate and the full implications of this anticipated 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

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over part of the Namib Desert in western Namibia. At 55 million years old, Namib is considered the oldest desert on Earth.

In this image, captured on 27 October 2019, a large portion of the Namib-Naukluft National Park is visible. The park covers an area of almost 50 000 sq km and encompasses part of the Namib Desert and the Naukluft Mountains to the east. Straight, white lines visible in the right of the image are roads that connect the Namib-Naukluft National Park with other parts of Namibia.

The park’s main attraction is Sossusvlei – a large salt and clay pan visible in the centre of the image. The bright white floors of the pan contrasts with the rust-red dunes that surround it.

Sossusvlei acts as an endorheic basin for the Tsauchab River – an ephemeral river flowing from the east. Owing to the dry conditions in the Namib Desert, the river rarely flows this far and the pan usually remains dry most years. In the past, water from the Tsauchab has reached the Atlantic coast a further 60 km away.

The dunes in this area are some of the highest in the world. The tallest, nicknamed ‘big daddy,’ stands at around 325 m. The dunes facing the river valley are called star dunes and are formed from winds blowing in multiple directions, creating long ‘arms’ that point into the valley from both sides.

These dunes contrast with the saffron-coloured dunes visible in the Namib Sand Sea, just south of Soussusvlei. The sand sea consists of two dune seas, one on top of another. The foundation of the ancient sand sea has existed for at least 21 million years, while the younger sand on top has existed for around 5 million years. The dunes here are formed by the transportation of materials from thousands of kilometres away, carried by river, ocean current and wind.

The Namib Sand Sea is the only coastal desert in the world to contain large dune fields influenced by fog – the primary source of water for the Namib Sand Sea. Haze is visible in the bottom left of the image, the last leftovers of fog coming from the Atlantic Ocean.

Copernicus Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission to supply the coverage and data delivery needed for Europe’s Copernicus programme.

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

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

The Tarso Toussidé volcanic massif is featured in this false-colour composite image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.

Tarso Toussidé, capped by the Toussidé (potentially active) stratovolcano, is located in the western end of the Tibesti Mountains, in Chad. With an elevation of 3265 m above sea level, Toussidé is the second highest peak in Tibesti, after Emi Koussi.

Toussidé has undergone a number of eruptions and lava flows, with the lava reaching lengths of 25 km and covering an area of 200 sq km, appearing to have ‘stained’ the ground in the process. The volcano ejected tephra, fragments of rock and volcano glass, lava and ash. In the middle of the field lies Pic Toussidé, a lava dome which can be seen poking out of the caldera.

Toussidé is said to be amongst the youngest volcanoes in Tibesti. A large number of fumaroles (openings in or near a volcano through which gases emerge) are active on its summit, exhaling mostly water vapour at temperatures of 40–60 °C – suggesting it is the only active Tibesti volcano.

Just next to Toussidé, in the far-right of the image, lies the Trou au Natron caldera, which sits at an elevation of around 2450 m. A number of volcanic cones sit on the floor of the caldera, with numerous vents and hot springs on the caldera’s floor emitting hot steam.

Much of the surface of the caldera is lined with a white crust of salts, including sodium carbonite. These crusts are usually formed when mineral-rich steam is emitted from small vents on the crater’s floor, and when this evaporates in the heat, the minerals are left behind.

The caldera has an irregular diameter of around 6-8 km and is up to 1000 m deep, and is said to have been filled by a freshwater lake during the last glacial maximum.

In the left of the image, the red shows sparse vegetation along the ephemeral creeks.

Satellite imagery is a practical way to study remote areas such as the volcanic regions in the Tibesti Mountain Range. The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission carries a multispectral imager with 13 spectral bands and has a wide swath coverage, delivering data on Earth’s land every five days.

This image, acquired on 21 September 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

Wow!

This beautiful, natural-colour image from Sentinel-2A on 18 September 2015 features the small nation of Bahrain and parts of eastern Saudi Arabia.

Located on the southwestern coast of the Persian Gulf, Bahrain is a small Arab state, made up of an archipelago consisting of Bahrain Island and some 30 smaller islands.

Owing to the high-resolution multispectral instrument on Sentinel-2A, the colour difference of the various types of surfaces is striking.

In the middle of the image, on the Persian Gulf, the King Fahd Causeway is clearly visible. Built between 1981 and 1986, it consists of a series of bridges and stretches of road connecting Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The Saudi and Bahraini passport control centres are also noticeable in the middle of the Causeway.

On the right of the image is the island of Bahrain, home to some 1.5 million people, with its modern capital Manama featured at the top. The greys represent the densely built city centre and surrounding towns.

Strikingly relaxed and cosmopolitan, Manama has been at the centre of major trade routes since antiquity.

On the top right part of the island, on a smaller island about 7 km northeast of the capital, Bahrain International Airport is visible.

Most of Bahrain is a flat and arid desert plain, with recurrent droughts and dust storms the main natural dangers for its inhabitants. Famous for its pearl fisheries for centuries, today it is also known for its financial, commercial and communications sectors.

Towards the central left part of the island, Bahrain University is observable. Also visible, the Al Areen Wildlife Reservation, both a nature reserve and zoo, one of the five protected areas of the country, and the only protected area on land.

On the bottom-right tip of the island a series of horseshoe-shaped artificial atolls are clearly visible. Durrat Al Bahrain, one of the largest artificial islands in Bahrain, comprises six atolls and five fish-shaped islands.

On the left side of the image, in Saudi Arabia, part of the Rub’ al-Khali, the world’s largest sand desert, is also visible.

Distinct throughout the entire image, the striking variations of blue represent the shallow versus deep waters, with the presence of coral reefs.

Sentinel-2A has been in orbit since 23 June 2015 as a polar-orbiting, high-resolution satellite for land monitoring, providing imagery of vegetation, soil and water cover, inland waterways and coastal areas.

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

Credit: Copernicus Sentinel data (2015)/ESA

This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image highlights the colours of autumn over the southern part of New York state in the US.

The different shades of brown in the image, which is from November 2022, capture the colours of autumn. This is particularly evident in the upper part of the image where mountains and forests are typical of the region.

New York is one of the most populous states in the US. Here, we see the area surrounding the Hudson River in the top left, through New York City following the river southwards, to the Atlantic shores of Long Island, which dominates the centre of the image. Long Island lies almost parallel to the southern shore of Connecticut, separated by Long Island Sound, a 145-km-long inlet of the North Atlantic Ocean.

The lighter tones of blue in the waters of Long Island Sound and Great South Bay – the lagoon on the southern shore of the island – show sediment shaped like eddies owing to surface currents.

Visible as a grey area to the west of Long Island is New York City. It comprises five boroughs, with the island of Manhattan in the centre bound by the Hudson, East and Harlem rivers. The meeting of the Hudson and East Rivers has formed one of the world’s largest natural harbours.

Separated from New York by the Hudson River, part of New Jersey is also visible in the bottom left of the image.

Zooming in, a number of iconic places can be spotted, including the 340-hectare green rectangle of Central Park at the centre of Manhattan Island, the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the three connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan, and Liberty Island, with the famous Statue of Liberty, which is off the southern tip of Manhattan.

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

A volcano on the Italian island of Stromboli erupted early on Sunday morning, releasing huge plumes of smoke and a lava flow pouring into the sea. The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captured this image of the aftermath less than five hours after the eruption.

The eruption caused the partial collapse of the crater terrace which was followed by major flows of lava stretching to the sea and enormous plumes of smoke rising several hundred metres above the volcano. Italian civil protection authorities raised the alert from yellow to orange as the ‘situation of enhanced volcano imbalance persists.’

This Sentinel-2 image has been processed in true colour, using the shortwave infrared channel to highlight the new flow of lava. The Sentinel-2 mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites, each carrying an innovative wide swath high-resolution multispectral imager with 13 spectral bands for monitoring changes in Earth’s land and vegetation.

The northernmost island of the Aeolian archipelago, located just off the northern tip of Sicily, Stromboli’s volcano has been erupting almost continuously for the past 90 years.

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

First image of the full Earth disc from the Meteosat Third Generation Imager. The first image from Meteosat Third Generation – Imager 1 (MTG-I1) reveals a level of detail about the weather over Europe and Africa not previously possible from 36 000 km above Earth. The higher-resolution images provided by the instruments on board give weather forecasters more information about the clouds cloaking much of Europe and visible in the equatorial region of Africa and the Atlantic Ocean. Sand and sediment in the waters off Italy are also visible, as well as dust or smog being carried from south Asia. This degree of detail is not possible from the instruments on the Meteosat Second Generation satellites. The image was captured at 11:50 UTC on 18 March 2023 by the Flexible Combined Imager on MTG-I1.

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Credits: EUMETSAT/ESA

This image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission on 10 October, shows the new flow of lava from the volcano erupting on the Spanish island of La Palma.

This Sentinel-2 image has been processed in true colour, using the shortwave infrared channel to highlight the lava flow. The Sentinel-2 mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites, each carrying an innovative wide swath high-resolution multispectral imager with 13 spectral bands for monitoring changes in Earth’s land and vegetation.

The Volcanology Institute of the Canary Islands (Involcan) stated that the lava flow, with temperatures up to 1240°C, destroyed the few remaining buildings still standing north of the Todoque neighbourhood.

Read full story: La Palma volcano: How satellites help us monitor eruptions

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

The Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission captured this impressive shot of the almost cloud-free Scandinavian Peninsula on 20 March 2022.

The Scandinavian Peninsula, which comprises Sweden and Norway, is approximately 1850 km long. It extends southward from the Barents Sea in the north, the Norwegian sea to the west and the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic Sea to the east. Denmark, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania are also visible in this week’s image.

Along the left side of the peninsula, the jagged fjords lining Norway’s coast can be spotted from space. Many of these fjords were carved out by the thick glaciers that formed during the last ice age. The largest and deepest fjord on Norway’s coast, called Sognefjord, lies in southwest Norway and is 1308 m deep.

Sweden’s topography consists mainly of flat, rolling lowlands dotted with lakes. Lake Vänern and Lake Vättern, the largest lakes of Sweden, are clearly visible at the bottom of the peninsula. The lakes do not freeze completely during the winter months. To the northeast of the peninsula lies Finland with more than 55 000 lakes – most of which were also created by glacial deposits.

During March, much of northern Europe and Scandinavia had been affected by a strong high-pressure weather system, which also allowed for this almost cloud-free acquisition. On 19 March in Tirstrup, Denmark, the atmospheric pressure reached 1051.6 hPa, the highest value ever recorded in March.

Carrying a suite of cutting-edge instruments, Copernicus Sentinel-3 measures Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere to monitor and understand large-scale global dynamics. It provides essential information in near-real time for ocean and weather forecasting.

With a focus towards our oceans, Sentinel-3 measures the temperature, colour and height of the sea surface as well as the thickness of sea ice, while, over land, the mission maps the way land is used, provides indices of vegetation state and measures the height of rivers and lakes.

A technical note: the image is a mosaic of 2 descending orbits with a difference of around 60 minutes between them, hence the observable striping at the top of the image.

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

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

The Liverpool Land peninsula, on the east coast of Greenland, is featured in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image. The peninsula is visible at the top partially covered with snow.

The Scoresby Sound, one of the widest and longest fjord systems in the world, is a deep inlet visible at the bottom of the peninsula and penetrates east Greenland for about 110 km. The town of Ittoqqortoormiit, considered one of the most remote settlements on Earth, lies in the south of the peninsula along the northern shore of the Scoresby Sound.

The Scoresby Sound also includes the Hurry Inlet, visible as a long and narrow fjord on the southwest side of the peninsula, separating Liverpool Land from Jameson Land. Along the west shore of the Hurry Inlet, the Nerlerit Inaat Airport can be seen and is the only airport that serves Ittoqqortoormiit.

In the dark blue waters of the Greenland Sea, a swirl of sea ice stands out clearly in white. The swirl-like feature has a diameter of around 120 km. Ice swirls are typically found in summer marginal ice zones. The marginal ice zone is the transition region between the open ocean and dense sea ice. Wind direction, waves and ocean currents can push blocks of sea ice into this particular shape.

The East Greenland Current, a cold, low-salinity current, is located off the east coast of Greenland. It moves southwards, cutting the Nordic Seas and the Denmark Strait, and is the main route through which the sea ice leaves the Arctic region and moves to lower latitudes.

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

Water levels on the Rhine River, Europe’s second-largest river, have continued to drop owing to soaring temperatures and lack of rainfall, preventing many vessels from navigating through the waters at full capacity. The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captured part of the Rhine River near Cologne.

Flowing from the Swiss Alps to the North Sea, the Rhine River is an important shipping route for many products from grains to chemicals to coal. When water levels drop, cargo vessels need to sail with reduced load, so they don’t run aground.

Water levels at the chokepoint of Kaub, near Frankfurt, fell to 32 cm in depth on Monday, down from 42 cm last week. Ships, however, need around 1.5 m to be able to sail fully loaded making it difficult for larger ships to navigate through the waters. Freight ships continue to sail, but only with around 25% to 35% of the ship’s capacity.

The low water levels are emerging earlier than usual, with the lowest water levels typically recorded in September or October. However, reduced temperatures and predicted rainfall forecasted for this week may offer relief to the Rhine.

The phenomenon facing the Rhine is common across much of Europe after an unusually hot and dry summer – causing wildfires and water shortages.

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites capture high-resolution imagery that provide information about the conditions on Earth, such as plant life, soil and coastal areas. The mission consists of two satellites both of which carry an innovative multispectral imager – a camera that captures optical images over a range of wavelengths beyond visible light.

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

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captured this view of New York City on 4 February 2021. While making for a dreamy postcard, the recent snow storm was classified as 'major', disrupting public transport and schools.

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

This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image shows the lava and smoke plume blowing from the Litli-Hrútur in a southwest direction. Litli-Hrútur, which translates to ‘Little Ram’ is part of the Fagradalsfjall volcanic area in southwest Iceland.

Read full story: Litli-Hrútur eruption seen from space

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Extremely high temperatures recorded this summer caused record melting across Svalbard – one of the fastest warming places on the planet. The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captured this rare, cloud-free acquisition of the Norwegian archipelago in August 2022.

Zoom in to see this image at its full resolution.

Located north of mainland Europe, Svalbard is around midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The archipelago, which spans around 62 700 sq km, is composed of nine main islands. The largest is Spitsbergen, visible here in the far-left, followed by Nordaustlandet in the top-right and Edgeøya in the bottom-right.

Spitsbergen, which is around the same size as Switzerland, has a mountainous terrain with most of the island covered with glaciers. Its highest point it Mount Newton, around 1717 m, in the northeast. The island is deeply indented by fjords. The longest fjord of the archipelago is Wijdefjorden and it is 108 km long. Opening on Spitsbergen's north coast, it runs roughly southwards into the interior, separating Andrée Land in the west from Margaretas Land in the east.

Also on Spitsbergen lies the Svalbard Satellite Station – SvalSat for short – which can be seen in the image peeking through the clouds. The ground station, which is operated by Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), has worked with a range of Earth observation missions including Aeolus, Swarm, CryoSat and all Copernicus Sentinel satellites.

The station is also important to the Galileo satellite navigation system – Europe’s global navigation satellite system. Its location makes it one of the most remote Galileo ground stations in the world.

This summer saw exceptionally warm air temperatures in Svalbard according to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. An average of 7.4 °C was recorded in June, July and August compared to the 5.5°C average recorded during the 1991-2020 period. The heatwave caused exceptional levels of melting, which ultimately contributes to sea level rise.

The image, captured on 21 August, shows the colourful and large sediment discharges in the Arctic Ocean. This is likely due to sediments that eroded by the flow of ice and then carried by meltwater into the Arctic Ocean. There is also some phytoplankton present in the waters, as seen in the far right, which colours the water turquoise and green.

Data acquired by the Copernicus Sentinel satellites are used to detect changes in Earth's surface in great detail and monitor the effects of climate change on remote environments such as the Arctic region.

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

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

This image uses data from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission’s radiometer instrument and shows the land surface temperature in the morning of 17 July 2023 during a heatwave. It is worth noting the difference between air temperature and land-surface temperature. Air temperature, given in our daily weather forecasts, is a measure of how hot the air is above the ground. Land-surface temperature instead is a measure of how hot the actual surface feels to the touch. This map shows the temperature of the land’s surface which is hotter than air temperatures.

As climate change takes grip, heatwaves such as this are likely to be more frequent and more severe, with far-reaching consequences.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Europe has kicked off the new year with an intense winter heatwave. The warm temperatures and lack of snowfall in the Alps and the Pyrenees has left several ski resorts with little or no snow.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, a high-pressure zone over the Mediterranean region and an Atlantic low-pressure system induced a strong southwest flux that brought warm air from northwest Africa to the middle latitudes. The air was further warmed when passing the North Atlantic owing to higher-than-normal sea surface temperatures.

All this caused record-breaking heat on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day with temperatures above 20°C observed in many European countries. The unexpectedly warm weather comes after excruciatingly hot weather in 2022 which saw the hottest summer on record for Europe, according to the latest Copernicus Climate Change Report published a few days ago.

In the satellite image, snow is more likely to be found on the peaks above 2000 m, while the ski slopes under this altitude have had to rely on artificial snow this season. Artificial ski slopes can be seen as thin, white strips in the bottom of the image.

Copernicus Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission. Each satellite carries a high-resolution camera that images Earth’s surface in 13 spectral bands. Together they cover all Earth’s land surfaces, large islands, inland and coastal waters every five days at the equator.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite brings us over part of the Sagaing Division in northwest Myanmar, and along the border with India.

Snaking through the image is the Chindwin River, which breached its banks during a period of severe flooding in 2015. Monsoon rains beginning that July caused multiple rivers in the region to overflow, causing widespread damage and affecting up to a million people.

This image was created using two passes by Sentinel-1’s radar: one before the flooding on 20 March 2015 and the other during the event on 4 September 2015. Combining them shows changes between the images, such as the inundation of some 111 000 hectares of land on either sides of the river bank appearing in red.

This information was then released in the form of a map under the International Charter Space and Major Disasters to assist relief efforts.

Currently led by ESA, the Charter is an international collaboration between 16 owners or operators of Earth observation missions. It provides rapid access to satellite data to help disaster management authorities in the event of a natural or man-made disaster.

Sentinel-1’s radar ability to ‘see’ through clouds, rain and in darkness makes it particularly useful for monitoring floods.

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

Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2015), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Part of the Anti-Atlas mountains bordering the Sahara Desert in western Algeria is pictured in this satellite image.

The Anti-Atlas range was born from continental collision, and geologists believe it was once higher than the Himalayas, but was reduced through erosion.

Here the land is mostly dry and barren as the mountains belong to the Saharan climate zone. But some stream channels created by occasional water runoff or from when the climate was much wetter than today, are visible.

The circle at the centre of the image is the Ouarkziz crater. Some 3.5 km across, the crater was created when a meteor hit Earth less than 70 million years ago, when dinosaurs still roamed the planet.

This image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite on 9 March.

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

Deep within the Sahara Desert lies one of the best-preserved craters on Earth. On Asteroid Day, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the almost-perfectly circular Tenoumer Crater in Mauritania.

Tenoumer Crater, visible in the centre of the image, is 1.9 km wide. The rims of the crater rise some 110 m high above the base, but the bottom of the crater is covered with approximately 200 to 300 m thick layer of sediments.

It was long debated whether the crater was formed by a volcano or meteorite. Scattered rocks around the crater, similar to basalt, created the impression of an ancient volcano. Yet a closer exanimation of the structure revealed the crater’s hardened ‘lava’ was actually rock that had melted by a meteorite impact.

The crater sits in a vast plain of rocks that are so ancient they were deposited hundreds of millions of years before the first dinosaurs walked Earth. Even though it resides in ancient rock, Tenoumer is much younger, ranging in age between 10 000 and 30 000 years old.

This Sentinel-2 false-colour image, captured on 16 May 2022, shows the arid landscape surrounding the crater which appears in varying shades of brown, tan and orange.

Asteroid Day is the United Nations-sanctioned day of public awareness of the risks of asteroid impacts, held annually on 30 June. More than one million asteroids have been discovered in the Solar System, with many more expected to be out there. ESA’s Planetary Defence Office, ESA’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre and astronomers around the globe are looking up to keep us safe, working together to ensure we know well in advance if an asteroid is discovered on a collision course.

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

Part of southern Italy is featured in this wintery image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.

With the Ionian Sea to the east and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west, the image features parts of Basilicata, Calabria and Puglia.

Lying between the two seas, this area is prone to extreme weather such as flooding. In January and February 2023, southern Italy experienced a period of unsettled weather, resulting in heavy rainfall and snow, even at low altitudes.

The image, acquired on 24 January 2023, shows the southern end of the Apennine Mountains covered with snow. The sandy colour of some of the rivers flowing down the mountain slopes depicts them carrying sediment, which is discharged into the sea. This has resulted in sediment plumes, which are clear to see along both the Tyrrhenian and Ionian coastlines.

The image also features several protected areas and two national parks, including the Pollino National Park. This is a UNESCO Geopark and Italy’s largest protected area. It covers almost 200 000 hectares between Calabria and Basilicata. The Pollino area is also home to several high mountains, the highest being the Serra Dolcedorme, which reaches 2267 m. It is visible, covered with snow, in the centre of the image.

North of the mountain peak, the Monte Cotugno artificial lake can be seen. Its waters appear green because of the high concentration of sediment.

In the top right corner of the image, a few small towns, visible in shades of brown, are dotted along the Ionian coast. The elongated green patches between the towns denote pine forests that give rise to pockets of biodiversity.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Italy’s Mount Etna, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, has erupted twice in less than 48 hours, spewing a fountain of lava and ash into the sky. This image, captured yesterday 18 February 2021 at 09:40 GMT by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, has been processed using the mission’s shortwave-infrared band to show the lava flow in bright red.

After Etna’s powerful eruption on Tuesday 16 February, the volcano produced another spectacular display of fire – with tall lava fountains shooting into the night sky, reaching heights of around 700 m. The first eruption caused large lava flows to descend eastwards into the Valle del Bove, travelling for approximately 4 km, but the second major explosion on Thursday 18 caused the lava also to run for about 1.3 km down the volcano’s southern flanks.

Ash from the eruptions covered the city of Catania and authorities have been monitoring developments in the nearby towns at the base of the volcano, including Linguaglossa, Fornazzo and Milo. The eruption also forced the temporary closure of Sicily’s Catania Airport, which often happens when the volcano is active.

According to Volcano Discovery, which publishes frequent alerts about seismic activity, the volcano also saw activity earlier today, 19 February, with lava flows continuing to descend to the south and east. Mount Etna is the tallest active volcano in Europe and frequently erupts.

Satellite data can be used to detect the slight signs of change that may foretell an eruption. Once an eruption begins, optical and radar instruments can capture the various phenomena associated with it, including lava flows, mudslides, ground fissures and earthquakes. Atmospheric sensors on satellites can also identify the gases and aerosols released by the eruption, as well as quantify their wider environmental impact.

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

World leaders, policymakers and delegates from nearly 200 countries have convened in Sharm El-Sheikh over the past two weeks at the COP27 UN Climate Summit. Today we take a closer look at the Egyptian city through the eyes of Copernicus Sentinel-2.

Sharm El-Sheikh is an Egyptian resort city on the southeast tip of the Sinai Peninsula, on the coastal strip along the Red Sea. The coastline is dotted with restaurants, bars and resorts. This striking true-colour image shows the Gulf of Aqaba at the top-right, feeding into the Red Sea – home to some of the hottest and saltiest seawater in the world.

The Red Sea is connected to the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal (not visible), one of the world’s busiest waterways.

The area offers many opportunities for diving. A series of coral reefs, which host rich marine life, can be easily spotted in the image. The variations in the colour of the water surrounding the islands and in the right of the image represent the depth of water. The lighter areas show more shallow waters than the vast expanse of deep blue/turquoise.

Over the past two weeks, world leaders are discussing action to tackle climate change at the COP27 Climate Summit. With the planet on course for 2.4-2.6 degree C warming (relative to pre-industrial levels) and warnings of future catastrophe from the UN, the conference’s central focus has been on limiting future greenhouse emissions and addressing loss and damage resulting from the unavoidable consequences of climate change.

As an official observer to COP27, ESA representatives have been participating throughout the event to highlight the value of space-based observations, not only for the scientific understanding of climate and how to improve predictions of future change, but also proving how space data can support commitments made at COP.

ESA has also shown how the growing use of satellite data is enabling the global community to take climate action and track progress towards nationally pledged commitments to limit global warming that are enshrined in the Paris Agreement.

The Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite has proved crucial in implementing the ambitious Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) initiative. The project aims to scale up global efforts to detect and act on major emissions sources and accelerate the implementation of the Global Methane Pledge.

Through its REgional Carbon Cycle Assessment and Processes project (RECCAP-2), ESA’s Climate Change Initiative is pioneering research in how to use space data to improve estimates of surface fluxes between the atmosphere, land and ocean to compare to national-scale estimates.

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

Snow cover is a vital source of water for industry, agriculture and human consumption. Records show that last winter’s snow cover in the Alps was less than it has been since 2001. This Copernicus Sentinel-3 image captured on 18 December 2022 shows the wide-coverage of snowfall which hopefully bodes well for the coming year.

Carrying a suite of cutting-edge instruments, the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission measures Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere to monitor and understand large-scale global dynamics.

Sentinel-3 measures the temperature, colour and height of the sea surface as well as the thickness of sea ice, while over land it provides indices of vegetation state, maps land and measures the height of rivers and lakes.

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

The remarkable moraine patterns of Malaspina Glacier – the largest piedmont glacier in the world – are featured in this false-colour image acquired by Copernicus Sentinel-2.

Malaspina Glacier is located west of Yakutat Bay in southeast Alaska, US. Covering an area of around 2900 sq km, the glacier flows for around 80 km along the southern base of Mount St. Elias and is around 300 m thick.

Malaspina flows faster than the piedmont glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland. Piedmont glaciers flow from a steeply sided valley, where the ice is constrained by mountains, onto a flat plain. The change in environment from narrow to wide creates the piedmont’s signature rounded lobe.

This Sentinel-2 image shows the central lobe of the glacier surging towards the sea. This image has been processed using the near-infrared channel to highlight vegetation in bright red. The wavy lines around the lower half of the glacier are rock, soil and other debris that have been deposited by the glacier – called moraines.

The colour of soil varies from light to dark brown in the image, while ice and snow appear bright white. The low Sun level at Alaska’s high latitudes during this season is evident by the shadows cast north by the Elias Mountains. Clear waters of the Pacific Ocean appear dark blue, while turbid waters appear in cyan.

The Malaspina Glacier is widely studied by scientists around the world. Its vulnerability to climate change and its cycles of surges and retreats were studied by scientists using Copernicus and Landsat data. They found that in the event of sea level rise, induced by climate change, seawater could cause major changes in the glacier’s terminus and lead to severe impacts on habitats in the area.

This image, also featured on the Earth from Space video programme, was captured on 4 July 2022.

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

From the Chugach Mountains on the right to the Cook Inlet on the left, this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image features the varied landscape surrounding Anchorage, the largest and most populous city in the state of Alaska in the United States.

Zoom in to explore this image at its full 10 m resolution or click on the circles to learn more.

Anchorage is visible in grey in the centre of the image. It lies in southcentral Alaska at the head of the Cook Inlet, between the Turnagain Arm stretching southeast and the Knik Arm stretching northeast. The sandy colour of waters illustrates how much sediment and debris are being transported into the inlet.

South of Anchorage, on the southern side of the Turnagain Arm, lies the Kenai Peninsula. The northwest of the peninsula is flat and dotted with numerous small lakes, while the east is home to the Kenai Mountains.

The snow-covered Chugach Mountains, which can be seen on the right of the image, hold the state’s largest concentration of glacial ice. When warm, wet air flows off the Pacific Ocean and meets the cool temperatures of this mountain range, some of the highest snowfall in Alaska is created.

The largest glacier visible in the image is Knik Glacier, an ice field snaking from the northern end of the Chugach Mountains. It measures about 40 km in length and over eight km across, making it one of the largest in southcentral Alaska.

Depending on the different concentrations of ice melting from the Chugach Mountains, glacial lakes and water bodies appear in various tones of cyan, light and dark blue.

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

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the sediment-stained waters in Laizhou Bay, located on the southern shores of the Bohai Sea, on the east coast of mainland China.

The bay is the smallest of three main bays of the Bohai Sea, and is named after the city of Laizhou, visible to the east. Large quantities of sediment carried by the Yellow River, visible in the left of the image, discolour the waters of the bay and appear turquoise. This sediment can be seen throughout the waters in this image, even far from the coast.

The Yellow River is China’s second longest river, with a length of over 5400 km, and is surpassed only by the Yangtze River. The river rises in the Bayan Har Mountains in Western China and flows through nine provinces before emptying into the Laizhou Bay. Its drainage basin is the third largest in the country, with an area of around 750 000 sq km.

The river is estimated to carry 1.6 billion tonnes of silt annually, carrying the majority to the sea. Owing to this heavy load of silt, the Yellow River deposits soil in stretches, ultimately elevating the river bed. Excessive sediment deposits have raised the river bed several metres above the surrounding ground, sometimes causing damaging floods.

On the southern coast of Laizhou Bay, in the bottom of the image, flooded fields are visible and are most likely artificial fish farms. The city of Dongying, home to the second largest oilfield in China, is visible in the left of the image.

This image was processed in a way that included the near-infrared channel, which makes vegetation appear bright red. The lush vegetation can be distinguished from the brown fields in the image, which are unharvested or not yet fully grown.

Copernicus Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission. Each satellite carries a high-resolution camera that images Earth’s surface in 13 spectral bands. The mission is mostly used to track changes in the way land is being used and to monitor the health of vegetation.

This image, acquired on 26 February 2020, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The icy landscape of Graham Coast, which lies on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula, is featured in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image taken in December 2022.

The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost and warmest region of the Antarctic continent. It resembles a 1000-km-long arm, stretching towards the southern tip of South America. The west coast of the peninsula is home to over 100 large glaciers, some of which are visible in this image; from the right: Murphy, Wilkinson, Drummond, Erskine, Widmark, Hugi, Lawrie, Weir and Comrie.

Like many places on Earth, the region has experienced exceptional atmospheric warming over the last decades. Using satellite data, a team of scientists have measured the speed of glaciers on the and discovered that in the summer months they are flowing faster than expected.

While some ice melts into the ocean, some breaks off into icebergs. The dark colour of the waters in the image allows us to easily spot many icebergs floating along the coast, as well as fragmented sea ice.

The Biscoe Islands also lie off the coast. The bigger islands visible in the image are the 45-km long Renaud Island on the left and the 29-km long Lavoisier Island in the centre.

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites each carry a high-resolution camera that takes images of Earth’s surface. While there are many advantages to this type of optical instrument, they cannot acquire meaningful images when it is dark or very cloudy. However, Sentinel-2’s wide swath and frequent revisit times increase the chance of imaging when the clouds part, as we see here in this image.

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

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Batura Glacier – one of the largest and longest glaciers in the world, outside of the polar regions.

Located in the upper Hunza Valley, in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan, the Batura Glacier is visible in the centre of the image and is approximately 57 km long. It flows from west to east and feeds the Hunza River in north Pakistan, then joins the Gilgit and Naltar Rivers before it flows into the Indus River.

The lower portions of the Batura Glacier feature a grey sea of rocks and gravelly moraine (an accumulation of rocks and sediment carried down by the glacier often caused by avalanches). The glacier has a mean ice thickness of around 150 m, with the lower parts of the glacier holding most of its mass.

This false-colour composite image uses the near-infrared channel of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission to highlight vegetation, which appears in red. Batura is bordered by several villages and pastures with herds of sheep, goats and cows where roses and juniper trees are quite common. In the upper-right of the image, pockets of cultivated vegetation alongside the Gilgit and Hunza rivers can be spotted.

Batura Glacier is located just north of the Batura Muztagh, a sub-range of the Karakoram mountain range, which includes the massifs of the Batura Sar, the 25th highest mountain on Earth standing at 7795 m, and Passu Sar at 7478 m.

Glacier shrinkage is a prominent sign of ongoing climate change. However, unlike many glaciers around the world, the glaciers residing in the mountain ranges in Karakoram are not responding to global warming. Their retreating is less than the global average, and in some cases, are either stable or growing. This anomalous behaviour of the region’s glaciers has been coined the ‘Karakoram Anomaly’.

Scientists typically measure the motions of glaciers with ground-based measurements. Because of the rugged terrain and challenges involved in field studies, long-term ground observational data on Karakoram is sparse. Satellites can help monitor changes in glacier mass, extents, trace area and length of glacier changes through time and derive surface velocity. Learn more about how Copernicus Sentinel-2 can help enhance glacier monitoring.

This image, captured on 13 August 2021, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.

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

The complex and diverse landscape that surrounds Nushagak Bay in Alaska is featured in this true-colour image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission .

Zoom in to see this image at its full resolution or click on the circles to learn more about the features in it.

Nushagak Bay is a large estuary covering over 100 sq km in southwest Alaska, US. The bay runs primarily north to south from the mouth of the Nushagak River before exiting into Nushagak Bay – an inlet of Bristol Bay some 50 km southwards.

The bay is primarily fed by the Nushagak River (visible in the top right), which begins in the Alaska Range and flows southwest approximately 450 km. The bay is also fed by several additional rivers including the Wood, Igushik, Snake and Weary rivers.

This true-colour image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. The dark colours of the Nushagak River are most likely due to tannins or lignins (chemical substances found in plants). Tannins and lignins from roots, leaves, seeds, bark and soil can leach into the water and give it a brown or even black colour. The sediments then flow southwards where it is mixed with the bluer waters of the bay.

The largest city in the area is Dillingham, home to around 2000 people, and is surrounded by forests, shrublands, grasslands and mosses. The rivers, as well as the lowlands around Nushagak Bay, are rich with deciduous trees. The dark purple areas along the bay are intertidal mud and sand flats. If you zoom in to the image, a white rim around the southern parts of the bay is visible. Several thaw ponds can also be seen dotted around the image.

Nushagak Bay is an important staging and stopover site for dozens of migratory shorebird and waterfowl species, and it contains one of the largest and most pristine sockeye salmon fisheries in the world.

Sentinel-2 carries a multispectral imager with a swath of 290 km. As well as providing detailed information about Earth’s vegetation, Sentinel-2 is designed to play a key role in mapping differences in land cover to understand the landscape, map how it is used and monitor changes over time.

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

Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite takes us over the Atlantic Ocean close to Spain and Portugal where the sky not only features clouds but also criss-cross tracks from maritime vessels.

The familiar condensation trails – or contrails – we see in the sky usually come from aircraft, so it might seem strange that ships can also occasionally leave their mark in the sky. This rarely seen maritime twist on aircraft contrails was captured by Sentinel-3A on 16 January 2018. Known as ship tracks, these narrow cloud streaks form when water vapour condenses around small particles that ships emit in their exhaust fumes. They typically form when low-lying stratus and cumulus clouds are present and when the air surrounding the ship is calm.

As the image shows, several shipping lanes intersect off the coast of Spain and Portugal. Although the Strait of Gibraltar is a busy shipping lane, with numerous ships travelling in and out of the Mediterranean Sea, there are no ship tracks visible here in the image. Most tracks are several hundreds of kilometres off shore.

Like aircraft contrails, ship tracks may also play a role in our climate by reducing the amount of sunlight that reaches Earth’s surface or conversely by trapping the Sun’s radiation in our atmosphere – but this remains an uncertain aspect of climate science.

The Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite carries a suite of sensors including an ocean and land colour instrument, which was used to capture this image, also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.

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

The Sentinel-2A satellite takes us over the very eastern part of the Sundarbans in Bangladesh, in this natural-colour image.

A region comprising southern Bangladesh and a small part of the Indian state of west Bengal, the whole area of the Sundarbans incorporates some 10 000 sq km, consisting of mangrove and swamp forests.

The region of the Sundarbans appears in dark shades of green in this image, while the adjacent areas in brighter colours are densely populated and dominated by agriculture.

Sundarbans is the world’s largest single chunk of tidal halophytic mangrove forest. Generally, fresh water is required for plants, but these mangrove forests can also thrive in saline water.

This area lies on the Bay of Bengal, the world’s largest bay. A number of large rivers – including the Ganges, its tributaries and various other rivers, all flow into its waters, forming the Ganges–Brahmaputra Delta.

The erosional forces of the sea and wind along the coast continuously mould the landscape, together with the huge amounts of silt and other sediments, deposited in the countless estuaries, visible in the water. Distinct throughout the image, the network of these estuaries, tidal rivers and creeks, criss-crossed by numerous channels, enclose flat, densely forested, marshy islands and agricultural plots.

Most of the delta is composed of alluvial soils made up of fine sediment that settles to the bottom as river currents slow in the estuary. The soil has large amounts of minerals and nutrients, ideal for agriculture.

These fertile floodplains host jute, tea and rice – the major crops grown in the Ganges Delta, visible as brighter patches on the land areas in the right part of the image. Fishing is also an important activity, and a major source of food for many of the inhabitants of the various towns, which we can see along the brighter areas.

The Sundarbans National Park, established in 1984 and a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a core region within the Bengal Tiger Reserve. The almost extinct Bengal tiger is the national animal of Bangladesh and is considered the second largest tiger in the world.

This image – also featured on the Earth from Space video programme – was captured by Sentinel-2A on 18 March 2016.

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