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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By piggybacking on Germany’s IRO-2 project, through which a prototype system for sea-ice forecasting and ship routing is being developed, ESA carried out the SMOS-ice field campaign in March 2014 to validate the ice-thickness data product from SMOS. Battling cold and storms, vital ground-truth information was gathered by an electromagnetic sensor suspended from a helicopter. The helicopter and team were carried on the RV Lance, which sailed into the polar sea-ice from Svalbard, Norway.