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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Coloured lines: Reflectance curves of snow, vegetation, water, and rock. Numbered boxes: wavelength range of the channels of the ASTER and the Landsat ETM+ (and TM) sensors with their spatial resolution (15m,..., 90m). Coloured area: atmospheric transmission; high values indicate that a high degree of solar radiation passes through the atmosphere, low values indicate that large parts of solar radiation are blocked by atmospheric gasses. VNIR: visible and near infrared; SWIR: shortwave infrared; TIR: thermal infrared; VIS: visible light; NIR: near infrared. Note that the reflectance curves for vegetation, water and rock are just examples. They can vary a lot with vegetation type and season, water turbidity and temperature, and rock type (here: granite).