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.
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Korea’s Kompsat-2 satellite captured this image of southern central Romania on 2 January 2013. The area pictured is part of a geographic transitional region between the Southern Carpathians to the north and the lowland plains to the south. The tree branch-like pattern is the result of erosion along rivers and streams. Running down the centre of the image is the Cotmeana river. Zooming in, we can see that large areas have been divided into hundreds of small agricultural plots.
ESA supports Kompsat as a Third Party Mission, meaning it uses its ground infrastructure and expertise to acquire, process and distribute data to users.
This image is featured on the Earth from Space video programme.