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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Leaf area index over land and chlorophyll concentration in surface ocean waters. The Sentinel-3 Ocean and Land Colour Instrument will measure the colour of the ocean, which contains latent information on the abundance of the marine microflora. Invisible to the naked eye, phytoplankton have huge collective impact visible from space. Phytoplankton are highly vulnerable to changes in environmental conditions and represent the marine equivalent of the canary in the coal mine. Over land it will provide unique and timely information about vegetation state by measuring variables such as leaf area index, fraction of absorbed photosynthetic active radiation in the plant canopy and terrestrial chlorophyll index.