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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Carrying a multispectral imager, the Sentinel-2 mission offers ‘colour vision’ for Europe’s Copernicus programme to monitor Earth’s changing lands in unprecedented detail. The multispectral imager is the most advanced of its kind – in fact, it is the first optical Earth observation mission of its kind to include three bands in the ‘red edge’, which provide key information on vegetation state. This advanced imager uses a push-broom concept and its design has been driven by the large 290 km-swath requirements together with the high geometrical and spectral performance required of the measurements. Two kinds of detectors integrate high-quality filters to isolate the spectral bands perfectly. The instrument’s opto-mechanical stability is extremely high, which has meant the use of silicon carbide ceramic for its three mirrors and focal plane, and for the telescope structure itself.
The animation shows how light from the visible and near-infrared range propagate inside the instrument cavity. It bounces off the three mirrors before reaching the two visible near-infrared and shortwave infrared detectors.