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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Global distributions of atmospheric methane as retrieved from the Sciamachy instrument on Envisat covering 2003–04 (top) and the TANSO instrument on Japan’s GOSAT from 2010–11 (bottom). High values (yellow to red) correspond to major source regions such as China (e.g., emissions from rice cultivation), Siberia (emissions from wetlands) and parts of the US (e.g., emissions from gas and coal mining, wetlands). During 2010–11 (bottom) the average global methane is approximately 30 parts per billion higher than in 2003–04 (top). Note: the colour scale changes between the two images.