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!
Researchers from the Finnish Meteorological Institute’s Arctic Space Centre launched a big white balloon from Lapland to measure the amount of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere as part of ESA’s preparatory work for the new Copernicus Carbon Dioxide Monitoring satellite mission. The aim is to evaluate the feasibility of measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane over snow. Contrary to our everyday experience, snow is very dark at the wavelengths that greenhouse-gas measuring satellites observe.
Read full story: Snowy Lapland and the white balloon