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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The image shows fluorescence from different types of vegetation. It was captured by a novel airborne sensor called Hyplant to support the development of ESA’s candidate Earth Explorer FLEX mission. The highest fluorescence values (bright yellow–green) were found in sugar beet. These results show how the FLEX satellite mission could provide global maps of vegetation fluorescence, which can be used to retrieve the actual photosynthetic activity. In turn, this would not only improve our understanding of the amount of carbon stored in plants and their role in the carbon and water cycles, but could potentially also be important for helping to optimise agricultural productivity.