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 topicThis video focuses on the Meteosat satellite, which provides data on weather variables to meteorological centres to be incorporated into weather forecast predictions. In order to understand climatic changes and how stable the weather system is, it is important to know the history of Earth’s weather. A brief history, starting 4,5 billion years ago, is provided. Observations are made about the differences in planetary neighbours Earth, Venus and Mars, despite their similar origins.
The history of our weather is largely driven by forces beyond Earth, deep in the solar system: sun, Earth’s orbit, Earth’s axis tilt, volcanic nature of Earth, galactic rubbish. Animations show what the Netherlands, ice and sea levels in northern regions and the Sahara would have looked like 50 000 years ago. Images of Earth from Meteosat are shown for the years: 1991, 1981, 1973 and 1968. Scientists actually know very little about Earth, its weather and how it all works. ESA’s ERS-1 provides data on Earth, allowing scientists to connect the present to the past.