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
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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This unobscured satellite view of Gabon shows how Envisat's radar sensor can acquire images over perennially cloudy regions effectively off-limits to its optical counterparts. Gabon is situated in Equatorial Africa, sharing borders with, Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo and Equatorial Guinea with its coast facing the Gulf of Guinea. The image illustrates how the country's geography is dominated by the watershed of the Ogooué (Ogowe) River, which drains almost the entire country, largely made up of undisturbed rainforest.
This false-colour image was acquired on 26 September 2005 by Envisat's Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) operating in Wide Swath Mode, to provide pixel sampling of 185 metres.