The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Arctic sea ice as seen by Envisat's MERIS instrument overlaid with data acquired by CryoSat-2 as it orbited over the same area a few hours after Envisat. The coloured lines in the CryoSat data indicate different levels of surface reflection. The darker blue represents the open ocean and sea ice where the surface is rough while the green show smooth mirror-like reflection representing the cracks, or leads, between the sea ice floes.
These data are used for Level 2 processing to help discriminate between the sea ice and leads and ultimately to determine sea-ice freeboard and hence ice thickness.