Europe and North Africa from Sentinel-4

The new Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission has delivered its first images, highlighting concentrations of atmospheric nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and ozone. Despite being preliminary, these images mark a major milestone in Europe’s ability to monitor air quality all the way from geostationary orbit, 36 000 kilometres above Earth.

This image of Europe and part of North Africa is based on the first Earth radiance spectra measured by Sentinel-4. The false-colour image, generated by assigning the signals in specific spectral ranges to red, green and blue, shows the land, ocean and clouds as expected.

Read full story: Sentinel-4 offers first glimpses of air pollutants