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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First data acquired by AMSU-A instrument, aboard MetOp-A, in its fifteen channels. In the lower part of Band 1, first stripe on the left, the Baja California coastline is visible, in the middle part of the same band the Antarctic continent can be seen and in the upper part the coast of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula are visible. The stripes shown for the other bands correspond to the temperature of air at different heights within the atmosphere. The primary purpose of the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A) instrument, which detects radiated thermal energy emitted by the air in different levels in the atmosphere, is to provide high temperature sounding data even in cloudy conditions.