About ESA
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.
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Space in Member States
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Germany
Austria
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Science & Exploration
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicAstronauts
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Enabling & Support
Making space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Monitoring air quality by counting vehicles
Problem: According to the World Health Organization, air pollution is responsible for seven million deaths globally each year, and 90% of us are breathing air that exceeds guideline limits. To tackle this issue, we need very high-resolution air quality maps. But these are only possible if we monitor the sources of emissions, rather than monitoring the emitted gases themselves.
ESA-backed solution: A feasibility study supported by ESA Space Solutions and carried out by TCarta and King's College London investigated using high-resolution satellite imagery to count vehicles effectively and reliably. Using this information, they could create emissions maps down to the level of a single road, and combine these with information about other emissions to predict air quality concentrations in any city at a very high resolution.
Ultimately, the team behind the project hopes to develop a unique web portal and mobile app allowing users to access traffic counts, traffic emissions and air pollution maps for cities around the globe. These maps would be some of the most detailed ever produced.
