Using cutting-edge technology, ESA’s FLEX mission is designed to reveal new insights into how plants function by measuring the faint fluorescence they emit during photosynthesis. Although invisible to the human eye, this signal changes with environmental conditions and plant health – allowing scientists to assess vegetation health, and stress.

FLEX orbits in tandem with one of the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites, which provides critical information on the atmosphere such as clouds, aerosols and water vapour as well as information about the land surface, such as the surface temperature and type of land cover and additional vegetation parameters. This integrated package of quasi-concurrent measurements promises to enable an unprecedented view of global vegetation function and status.