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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For the first time, data from ESA’s CryoSat mission have been used to map the height of the ice sheet that blankets Antarctica. The preliminary data used here are from February and March 2011. More data still need to be collected to study the ice sheet in detail. Nevertheless, CryoSat's ability to map the edges of the ice sheet is demonstrated by the detail that can be seen of the flow from east Antarctica onto the Ronne-Filchner ice shelf in the west. Orbiting closer to the poles than other Earth observation missions, CryoSat offers additional coverage. The outer white circle represents the limits of earlier missions and the inner circle shows that CryoSat is collecting data up 88° latitude.