ESA Earth Observation

Video: 00:00:04 Yesterday between 20:26 and 20:34 CEST, parts of the Iberian peninsula experienced a total solar eclipse. This animation, composed of images from the Meteosat Third Generation Imager satellite (MTG-I1), caught the Moon’s dark shadow as it passed over Earth’s surface – converging with the advancing twilight shadow as dusk fell over Europe.From its vantage point in geostationary orbit, MTG-I1 keeps its imaging instruments focused on Europe and northern Africa from a distanc

Earth observation satellites help us monitor phenomena such as wildfires, drought and heatwaves from space. This page is updated on a regular basis with a selection of ESA’s most recent news-related images showing how the effects of climate change are impacting our world.

Image: These Copernicus Sentinel-2 images over the Danube north of Budapest show how the river’s level has fallen to a record low in Hungary due to a severe drought in central Europe.

Since the second Meteosat Third Generation Imager satellite (MTG-I2) began its launch campaign last month, it has undergone rigorous pre-launch inspections that ensure the electronic and mechanical systems are working correctly. How does a team of experts, including scientists, engineers, launch coordinators and mission operation specialists, ensure everything is running smoothly behind the scenes, both during and after liftoff?

Europe’s forests are losing more biomass than previously thought, with disturbances such as drought and pests causing increasingly large losses from some of the oldest forests in Europe. This situation has deteriorated markedly since 2018.

The European Space Agency's two-satellite HydroGNSS Scout mission has completed commissioning and is now in full scientific operations.Following extensive testing and validation of the satellites, instruments and ground segment, HydroGNSS data are now freely available to users worldwide, opening new opportunities to advance our understanding of water availability and the impacts of climate change on Earth's water cycle.

Image: This colourful radar image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission features New Orleans and the delta of the Mississippi River, one the largest rivers in North America.

As the Pacific Ocean moves into an El Niño phase, scientists are monitoring changes in sea-surface temperature, but also sea-surface salinity – which is another key indicator of this phenomenon.Measurements from satellites such as the European Space Agency's SMOS mission are revealing how freshwater and salt patterns shift across the Pacific as this year’s El Niño develops – offering a potential new pathway for early detection.

Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, captured on 26 July, shows a zoomed-in view over ESA's Cebreros ground station, which lies within the areas heavily affected by the wildfires in Spain.

Image: These images by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, captured on 26 July, show the area to the west of Bordeaux, France, where wildfires continue to burn countryside, fanned by wind and heatwave conditions.

Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Australia’s southwestern corner in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia.

More analysis is needed to ensure that tropical forest degeneration and regeneration are consistently reported in carbon cycle models and in national reporting, according to a study funded in part by ESA's Climate Change Initiative Biomass project.The study analysed how tropical forests store carbon under varying conditions and then release it back into the atmosphere. The scenarios studied range from complete forest destruction through deforestation, which is relatively well understood, to fore

Image: The FLEX satellite, ESA’s next Earth Explorer mission, has been removed from its container packaging at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, where it will be prepared for its upcoming launch.

Image: The next satellite in the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation satellite system, Sentinel-3C, has been unpacked from its container at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

Press Release N° 35–2026 Media representatives are invited to express their interest in attending the media programme at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana for the launch of the FLEX and Copernicus Sentinel-3C satellites on a Vega-C rocket (flight VV30). Liftoff is expected to take place in September.

Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image features part of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau in western Africa.

Image: The MTG-I2 satellite has undergone a 'fit check' with its launch vehicle adapter to ensure that everything fits correctly before the actual launch

With liftoff scheduled for September, excitement is building at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana as two cutting-edge Earth observation satellites, FLEX and Copernicus Sentinel-3C, have arrived to begin their launch campaigns.Over the coming weeks, engineers and mission teams will carry out a series of rigorous inspections and prepare the satellites to be installed atop their Vega-C rocket for their journey into orbit.

The European Space Agency has installed its first quantum computer, called Bell-1, at its Earth observation centre in Italy. The move marks a significant step in exploring how quantum technology could be merged with classical high-performance computing to improve the speed and efficiency of processing huge amounts of satellite data.

One year after launch, the first Meteosat Third Generation Sounder satellite, MTG-S1, is now commissioned and has been placed in its operational position in geostationary orbit at 0° longitude, and is now ready to deliver vital data to strengthen weather forecasting across Europe.