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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Snow blankets much of this eastern part of Canada’s Saskatchewan province, in this 28 November 2015 image taken by ESA’s technology-testing Proba-V minisatellite.
The Saskatchewan River can be seen flowing into Tobin Lake in the upper-left part of this 100 m-resolution image.
Launched on 7 May 2013, Proba-V is a miniaturised ESA satellite tasked with a full-scale mission: to map land cover and vegetation growth across the entire planet every two days.
Its main camera’s continent-spanning 2250 km swath width collects light in the blue, red, near-infrared and mid-infrared wavebands at 300 m resolution and down to 100 m resolution in its central field of view.
VITO, the Flemish institute for technological research, processes and distributes Proba-V data to users. VITO has produced an online gallery highlighting some of the mission’s most striking images so far, including views of storms, fires and deforestation.
Next month sees a major symposium devoted to the minisatellite and its global output, taking place at Ghent in Belgium.