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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CRYO2ICE is a unique campaign that brings together ESA’s CryoSat-2 and NASA’s ICESat-2 satellites. ESA is changing the orbit of the CryoSat-2 satellite to align periodically with ICESat-2. This will provide almost simultaneous radar and lidar measurements of the same ice. The campaign takes place on 16–31 July 2020. The resulting data will allow scientists to measure snow depth from space on both sea and land, improving the accuracy of sea-ice thickness measurements and ice-sheet elevation time series. The measurements will also help map snow over the poles and advance our understanding of currents in polar oceans, with further applications expected in the study of inland waters and the atmosphere. Credits: ESA/NASA Goddard Flight Center