Monday, May 23rd, 2011
The European Space Agency, Arianespace and the European Commission announced today that the launch of the first two satellites of Europe’s global navigation satellite system is planned to take place on 20 October. This will be the first of a series of Galileo satellite launches by Arianespace from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
Thursday, May 19th, 2011
ESA is helping to take the bite out of mosquitoes and their deadly diseases by tracking their distribution and habitat via observation satellites, satnav, and mobile communications. The Vecmap initiative is testing the accurate mapping of mosquitoes in Europe, in particular, mosquitoes carrying diseases, for public health agencies and regional mosquito controllers. Testing began in 2009
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
With today’s contract signature, Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA); Martin Zeil, Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs; and Thorsten Rudolph, CEO of Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO) officially kicked off the GMES Masters innovation competition. The goal of this competition is to promote more widespread use of Earth observation data from the
Friday, May 13th, 2011
Western Europe’s exceptionally dry spring is clear to see in maps generated using data from SMOS. While these maps offer an interesting view of the stark difference in soil moisture compared to a year ago, the data are also important for agricultural and hydrological applications. ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission has been orbiting
Thursday, May 12th, 2011
ESA’s CryoSat team working on the Greenland ice sheet has been honoured with a visit from a Dutch delegation including HRH Prince of Orange. The visit is part of a tour to learn more about climate change in polar regions and consequences for the environment. Prince Willem-Alexander’s visit to Greenland was at the invitation of the
Tuesday, May 10th, 2011
Pau Pyrénées in southern France has become Europe’s first airport to use the new EGNOS Safety-of-Life Service, to guide aircraft in for landing using only this highly accurate space navigation signal. Clermont-Ferrand Airport in central France is also set to start using EGNOS – serving mainly business aircraft – while Marseilles Airport should also join them,
Sunday, May 8th, 2011
The official ceremony marking ESA’s handover of the Soyuz launch site to Arianespace took place today at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, after the site was declared ready for the first flight and the completion of a simulated launch campaign. The French space agency, CNES, as prime contractor for the building work, along with its European
Saturday, April 23rd, 2011
Today GPS is a common and extremely useful tool. Europeans wanted to refine its accuracy by developing EGNOS, the precursor of the Galileo constellation. We look at satellite navigation and its applications. Read More
Saturday, April 16th, 2011
Envisat captures dust and sand from the Algerian Sahara Desert, located in northern Africa, blowing west across the Atlantic Ocean last week. Stretching across the eastern Atlantic, strong winds carry the plume over the northwestern tip of the Iberian Peninsula (bottom), the western tip of France, the southwestern tip of England (top right) and the southwestern
Friday, April 8th, 2011
The image represents the first radar intensity map collected at the very same Ku-band wavelength at which the candidate Earth Explorer CoReH2O would operate. The image was acquired near Sondankylä, northern Finland using the SnowSAR airborne instrument developed for ESA. In the lower right corner, the four bright dots are corner reflectors positioned on river ice
