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 monthly mean sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies relative to a 1961–90 climatology from satellites (ATSRs: Along-Track Scanning Radiometers) and in-situ records (HadSST3). Black lines: the 100-member HadSST3 ensemble. Red lines: ATSR-based night-time subsurface temperature at 0.2 m depth (SST0.2m) estimates from the ATSR Reprocessing for Climate (ARC) project. Retrievals based on three spectral channels (D3, solid line) are more accurate than retrievals based on only two (D2, dotted line). Contributions of the three different ATSR missions to the curve shown are indicated at the bottom. The in-situ and satellite records were collocated within 5×5° monthly grid boxes: only those where both datasets had data for the same month were used in the comparison. (Adapted from Merchant et al. 2012.)