The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
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Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Wildfires break out in the boreal forests of eastern Russia most summers, but 2016 has been particularly bad, with numerous blazes since July. This image, which was taken by the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite on 14 September, shows a string of fires northwest of Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is thought that drier conditions associated with warmer weather – this June being the hottest on record – have contributed to the unusually large number of fires.
While this image was captured with Sentinel-3A’s Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer, the same scene showing plumes of smoke stretching over 2000 km, was imaged with the satellite’s Ocean and Land Colour Instrument.