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
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
An ‘Elbara’ L-band radiometer placed on the Tibetan Plateau to help interpret measurements from ESA’s SMOS mission. Ground-truth measurements form an important part of the mission. To include different soil types and vegetation cover, validation measurements are made in many parts of the world, from Spain to Antarctica. New Elbara systems were recently placed in Poland and on the Tibetan Plateau. Understanding the Tibetan Plateau’s water cycle is extremely important to manage Asia’s water resources since major rivers such as the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Mekong, Yangtze and the Yellow River are all fed from the plateau.