Europe and China watching Earth together   This image of Poyang Lake was acquired at the end of China’s dry season. Small ponds are visible in the image in light blue. In the centre part of the image, some of these ponds are connected by channels (visible in dark blue and gray). The dark red and pink cluster visible in the upper image is a forested area, located mostly on hills. Pink colours across the bottom of the image represent vegetation growing on the mud banks. The bright colour on the left side of the image represents sand. This image, produced as part of the Dragon Programme, allows scientists to understand better the landscape and water flow paths of the area and provides information on the spatial distribution of vegetation units.   Dragon 2 – a joint undertaking between ESA and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China – encourages scientists to use Earth observation (EO) data to monitor and understand environmental phenomena in China. Nearly 200 scientists from Europe and China gathered in Barcelona to report on the progress of ongoing Dragon 2 projects.   The first Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) wide swath image of the Kuroshio Current inverted to radar Doppler velocity by J. Johannessen and Fabrice Collard, as part of the Dragon 2 programme. This image reveals the structure of the Kuroshio Current off the Chinese coast with speeds up to 1,5 metres per second.   Nearly 200 scientists from Europe and China gathered in Barcelona, Spain from 22-26 June 2009 to report on the progress of ongoing Dragon 2 research projects using data from ESA and Chinese Earth observation satellites. Release date: 25 June 2009