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
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
Data visualization of water density distribution with altitude in the atmosphere of Mars as a function of season, as measured by the SPICAM instrument on ESA’s Mars Express. The data covers eight martian years (Mars year 27 to 34), based on two dedicated campaigns per year. The data show that the vertical distribution of water vapour is highly variable with season and altitude. The results found that water vapour remained confined to below 60 km when Mars was far from the Sun but extended up to 90 km in altitude when Mars was closest to the Sun. The atmosphere also has a greater water density during southern hemisphere summer, enhanced by the planet’s closer proximity to the Sun.
In this visualization, brighter dots indicate a higher density of water (up to 1013 cm-3), darker indicate a lower density (5 x 109 cm-3). Data for two global dust storms are excluded from the data. See A. Fedorova et al (2021) for values and detailed description.