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 22 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
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
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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Examples of Earth's outgoing longwave radiation in brightness temperatures for the far-infrared at wavenumbers of 667.6 cm-1 (top), for the stratosphere, and 621.7 cm-1 (bottom) for the troposphere. The cold features in the mid-latitudes and Tropics are clouds. ESA’s Earth Explorer 9 candidate mission, FORUM, would measure radiation emitted from Earth across the entire far-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Specifically, it would measure in the 666.67 cm–1 to 100 cm–1 range (i.e. equivalent to 15–100 micrometre wavelength), which has never been achieved before from space. The mission would improve our understanding of the greenhouse effect and, importantly, improve confidence in the accuracy of climate-change assessments that form the basis for future policy decisions.