By representing the arithmetic average reflectivity, it displays the range of vegetation cover across Europe and North Africa’s land surface. A variety of features can be seen, ranging from deep Norwegian fjords to the rugged Alps over Italy, down to the striking green triangle of the Nile Delta at bottom right, surrounded by arid desert.

Young graduate Ana Silió Calzada, a member of the ESA training programme New Opportunities for Women, prepared this test of Level 3 product from raw Level 1 top-of-atmosphere data using the Envisat (A)ATSR and MERIS toolbox software algorithms available to ESA Principal Investigators (PIs).

"This image is really a demonstration of what can be done with the software tools that ESA provides," explained Silió. "I basically put myself in the situation of the user to show how scientifically useful multi-temporal data can be generated. I think of it as a work in progress, since more detail can always be added."

The angle of the mosaic is due to the path of Envisat's polar orbit in relation to the Earth. Wallpapers of the Europe mosaic and six European regions within it are now available for download (see right).