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 picture shows the scatterometer winds (in arrows or flags), with an infrared satellite image (from METEOSAT, GOES or GMS) and numerical weather prediction model winds (currently only HIRLAM forecast in the Northern Atlantic region, in blue arrows or flags) as well as an indicative ice mask (in blue) on the background.
A wind flag is represented by barbs and solid pennants, a full barb representing a wind speed of 5 m/s, a half barb representing a wind speed of 2.5 m/s, and a pennant representing a wind speed of 25 m/s.
The exact data acquisition time is plotted in red next to the satellite swath.
If a magenta marker is plotted on top of the wind arrow, this denotes land or ice presence. If a scatterometer wind arrow is plotted in yellow, this denotes that the Variational Quality Control flag is set. A yellow dot means that the KNMI Quality Control Flag is set.