Reflecting on Earth's albedo

The amount of sunlight being absorbed or reflected by Earth is one of the driving forces for weather and climate. Satellites are providing this information with unprecedented accuracy.

Earth's northern biomass mapped and measured

The biomass of the northern hemisphere's forests has been mapped with greater precision than ever before thanks to satellites, improving our understanding of the carbon cycle and our prediction of Earth's future climate.

Volcanoes cause climate gas concentrations to vary

Trace gases and aerosols are major factors influencing the climate. With the help of highly complex installations, such as MIPAS on board of the ENVISAT satellite, researchers try to better understand the processes in the ...

Tracking trains with satellite precision

Taking a cue from how ESA controls satellites, Spanish railways now have their own high-tech upgrade to keep travellers abreast of when the next train is going to pull into the station.

Focus on space debris: Envisat

(Phys.org)—Space debris came into focus last week at the International Astronautical Congress in Naples, Italy. Envisat, ESA's largest Earth observation satellite, ended its mission last spring and was a subject of major ...

Satellite data confirms Santorini's growth

(Phys.org)—In the south Aegean Sea, the islands of Santorini have been showing signs of unrest for the first time in over half a century. Satellite data confirm that the islands have risen as much as 14 cm since January ...

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Envisat

Envisat ("Environmental Satellite") is an Earth-observing satellite. It was launched on 1 March 2002 aboard an Ariane 5 from the Guyana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guyana into a Sun synchronous polar orbit at an altitude of 790 km (490 mi) (± 10 km (6.2 mi)). It orbits the Earth in about 101 minutes with a repeat cycle of 35 days.

This €2.3 billion European Space Agency (ESA) programme launched the largest earth observation satellite put into space (as of late 2006), being 26 m (85 ft) × 10 m (33 ft) × 5 m (16 ft) and having a mass of 8.5 t (8.4 long tons; 9.4 short tons).

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