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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ESA is preparing the Sentinel satellites as part of the EU’s Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security initiative.
Sentinel-3 is a multi-instrument mission to determine parameters such as sea-surface topography, sea- and land-surface temperature, ocean colour and land colour with high-end accuracy and reliability.
Near-real time data processing and delivery will allow a broad range of GMES services including maritime safety services that need ocean-surface wave information, surface temperature and data to improve ocean current forecasting systems; sea-water quality and pollution monitoring requiring advanced ocean colour products in both open ocean and coastal oceanographic application areas; sea-ice charting services requiring sea-ice extent and ice-berg detection; services to monitor land-use change, forest cover, photosynthetic activity, soil quality and fire detection.