Earth from space: image of the week

[jacqmans]

Earth from Space: Giza, Egypt
18/04/2025

This very high-resolution image captures the Egyptian city of Giza and its surrounding area, including the world-famous Giza Pyramid Complex.

The third largest city in Egypt by area, Giza is on the west bank of the Nile River, which flows north on the right of the image, separating Giza on the west from the capital Cairo to the east. A number of bridges can be seen connecting the two cities.

Known as the father of African rivers, the Nile is the longest river in the world. The fertile land near its banks has always allowed the Egyptians to grow produce and thrive in the arid desert.

In this image, the green agricultural fields stand out against the grey of Giza’s dense conurbation. To the southwestern edge of the city, yellow and ochre denote the dry sand of the desert and the Giza Plateau, hosting some of the most impressive ancient monuments in the world.

The distinctive shape of the Great Pyramids of Giza can be observed in the lower part of the image, half lit by the Sun and casting distinctive shadows. The northernmost and largest pyramid seen here is that of Khufu, or Cheops, and is also the oldest of the three, built in around 2600 BC. The middle pyramid was built for the pharaoh Khafre and the southernmost and smallest of the three monuments is that of Menkaure, built in around 2510 BC.

Zooming in, smaller pyramids can be seen adjacent to the Cheops and the Menkaure pyramids. These were burial sites for other members of the royal family. The square structures of mortuary temples are also visible near each pyramid. East of the Khafre pyramid, the Great Sphinx can be recognised, one of Egypt’s most famous landmarks.

About 2 km northwest of the pyramids lies the Grand Egyptian Museum, visible as a white, rhomboid structure surrounded by large plazas filled with date palms. Occupying a 50-hectare plot of land, the museum is the largest archaeological museum in the world.

This image was acquired by the Vision-1 mission, which provides images with a resolution of up to 0.87 m. Vision-1 is part of ESA’s Third Party Missions programme, which means ESA uses its multi-mission ground systems and expertise to acquire, process, distribute and archive data from a wide range of satellite missions developed and operated by other agencies.

[jacqmans]

Earth from Space: French Guiana
25/04/2025

Copernicus Sentinel-1 captured this radar image over French Guiana – home to Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, where ESA’s Biomass mission is being prepared for liftoff on 29 April onboard a Vega-C rocket.

This false-colour view shows part of the northeast coast of South America, stretching from the estuary of the Kourou River in French Guiana in the east, to Suriname, west of the Maroni River. The latter is visible as a dark line, snaking its way across the image and marking the border between the two countries.

The colours in this image come from the combination of two polarisations from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, which have been assigned a colour and converted into a single composite. This processing technique helps to distinguish different types of surface, thereby providing detailed information.

Here, water is clearly reflected in dark shades of blue. Distinct wave patterns can be seen in the Atlantic Ocean since the radar signal is highly sensitive to changes in the roughness on the water: calm waters appear darker, while rough seas appear brighter.

The dark, branching waterways of the Petit Saut Reservoir stand out in the centre-right of the image. The water body was formed by a hydroelectric dam built on the Sinnamary River. The river can be seen winding its way north to eventually drain into the Atlantic Ocean.

Most of the land is shown in vibrant shades of yellow, indicating tropical rainforests and other areas of vegetation, where radar signal interacts and bounces from the complex structure of the canopy, including tree trunks, branches and leaves. Built-up areas appear more colourful than the surroundings.

With over 90% of land covered by forest, French Guiana is the territory with the most trees per inhabitant in the world. Since it is an overseas department of France, it is also the only part of the Amazonian forest in the EU.

Northeast of the Petit Saut Reservoir, on the coast between the estuary of the Sinnamary River and the Kourou River, lies Europe's Spaceport. This is home to the ESA-developed Ariane and Vega rocket families and allows for independent, reliable access to space for Europe.

From here, ESA’s Biomass mission is scheduled to launch on a Vega-C rocket on 29 April.

Once in orbit, this latest Earth Explorer mission will provide vital insights into the health and dynamics of the world’s forests, revealing how they are changing over time and, critically, enhancing our understanding of their role in the global carbon cycle, and hence in the climate system.

[jacqmans]

Earth from Space: World’s biggest iceberg
02/05/2025

The Ocean and Land Colour Instrument on Copernicus Sentinel-3 captured this image of Earth’s biggest iceberg, A23a, on 5 April 2025.

The ice mass is currently lodged on the seabed 73 km from the remote island of South Georgia, which can be seen just poking out from beneath the cloud cover.

Although the size of the island is not clearly visible in this image, it is only marginally bigger than the iceberg. The A23a is estimated to cover an area of 3460 sq km – twice the size of Greater London in the UK. In comparison, the island of South Georgia is 3528 sq km.

An image of the berg was also featured by ESA in December 2023 when it was dislodged from the ocean floor and was pushed by currents away from the Antarctic. It initially calved from Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986. Since then, it has travelled more than 2000 km.

A23a has started to disintegrate and many smaller blocks of ice are visible in the dark blue ocean, particularly to the north of the berg. The disintegration is typical of icebergs that reach this far north and is caused by the warmer sea temperatures and weather conditions.

South Georgia is a mountainous island 170 km in length, with a central ridge that reaches a height of 2935 m. It lies in the South Atlantic Ocean, about 1400 km east of the Falkland Islands (Las Malvinas) and northeast of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

It is the largest of the South Georgia and South Sandwich archipelago, a British overseas territory and is home to a range of biodiversity, including penguins and seals, as well a British Antarctic Survey research station.

[jacqmans]

Earth from Space: Northwest Sardinia, Italy
09/05/2025

Part of the Italian island of Sardinia is featured in this image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.

With an area of about 24 090 sq km, Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily. It is situated about 200 km west of the Italian peninsula, a similar distance north of Tunisia, and is separated from the French island of Corsica by just 12 km.

The area pictured here covers a section of the province of Sassari in the northwestern part of the island, with the Sardinian Sea to the west and the Gulf of Asinara to the north.

The urban agglomeration of the city of Sassari can be seen as a brown and grey area near the centre of the image, about 10 km inland from the northern coast. Sassari lies at about 225 m above sea level on a wide plateau that slopes down towards the Gulf of Asinara. The city is surrounded by a green belt of agricultural fields and olive plantations.

The seaport serving Sassari is Porto Torres, lying on the coast along the Gulf of Asinara. The gulf is named after Asinara Island, visible at the northwest tip of the gulf. Once home to one of Italy’s top-security prisons, Asinara Island is now a protected marine and wildlife reserve.

Zooming in, it's interesting to note how the waters within the gulf appear calm compared to the rough waters of the open sea to the west, where distinct wave patterns can be clearly identified. The white colour all along the western coastline is caused by the big waves crashing against the rocky cliffs.

Moving south, two bays are visible at the bottom of the image: the smaller bay of Porto Conte and the larger bay of Alghero. Here, the city of Alghero extends along the coast, while the port of Fertilia lies  at the northern end of the bay. The runways of the Alghero-Fertilia Airport can be spotted just inland from Fertilia.

In the area between Alghero, Sassari and Porto Torres lies the plain of Nurra. Covering a surface of about 700 sq km, Nurra is the second-largest plain on the island, dominated in the image by agricultural fields, with a large section devoted to vineyards.

[jacqmans]

Earth from Space: Svalbard Archipelago
16/05/2025

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission brings us this cloud-free view of Svalbard, a remote Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.

Located north of mainland Europe, Svalbard is roughly halfway between Norway and the North Pole. It is surrounded by four bodies of water: the Arctic Ocean, the Greenland Sea to its west, the Barents Sea to the east and the Norwegian Sea to the south.

The archipelago is dominated by rugged mountains, deeply indented fjords and numerous glaciers. The colourful shades of green in the waters along the coasts are likely due to sediment discharges, eroded by the flow of ice and then carried by meltwater into the sea.

Nine main islands make up the archipelago, which covers a total area of around 62 700 sq km. The largest is Spitsbergen, visible here in the left of the image, followed by Nordaustlandet to its top right, mainly covered by large ice caps, Edgeøya at the bottom right, and Barentsøya, north of Edgeøya.

Spitsbergen, which is around the same size as Switzerland, has a mountainous landscape, with elongated valleys and a jagged western coastline, shaped by glacial erosion and marine incursion. Its highest point is Mount Newton, around 1717 m, in the northeast.

Opening on Spitsbergen's north coast is Wijdefjorden, the longest fjord of the archipelago. It runs 108 km southwards, separating Andrée Land in the west from Margaretas Land in the east.

Spitsbergen is the only permanently populated island of the archipelago and Longyearbyen is the largest settlement. Near Longyearbyen sits the Svalbard Satellite Station – SvalSat for short. Its position enables it to track all 14 daily passes of polar-orbiting satellites. It has worked with a range of Earth observation missions including Aeolus, Swarm, CryoSat and Copernicus Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3.

This image was generated using multiple scans captured by Copernicus Sentinel-2 between June and September 2024. By choosing the cloud-free pixels over a long period of time, such clear, high-resolution mosaics can be created, which are especially valuable to overcome the persistent challenges of limited visibility, due to cloud cover and polar night, in the Svalbard area.

These multitemporal composites optimise land cover classification, glacier boundary delineation and vegetation mapping in the short Arctic summer. Additionally, the frequent revisit time of Sentinel-2 – up to every five days at mid-latitudes – allows researchers to build detailed annual or seasonal composites, enabling consistent monitoring of environmental changes across the archipelago.

[jacqmans]

Earth from Space: Alakol, the multicoloured lake
23/05/2025

Lake Alakol in eastern Kazakhstan is featured in this radar image captured by Copernicus Sentinel-1.

Although radar images are naturally black and white, the colours in this false-colour composite result from the combination of three separate radar images, acquired a month apart in 2025. Each image has been given a different colour: blue for March, green for April and red for May. When the images are overlaid, the resulting colours highlight changes on the ground between the acquisitions. Areas that appear grey or white depict little or no change.

Alakol means ‘multicoloured lake’ and in this image it can be seen in the top left corner in varying shades of blue and green depending on variations in the frozen surface during the acquisition period. As this saltwater lake usually freezes for about two months at the end of winter, and breaks up in early spring, it appears mainly blue because, during the March acquisition, the surface was mostly frozen.

There are two smaller, shallower lakes to the northwest of Alakol. The closest is Koshkarkol, and part of Sasykkol, a freshwater lake, is also seen in the image. The variety of yellow, pink and magenta colours in the land surrounding the lakes denotes variations in vegetation between March and May.

The Alakol–Sasykkol lake system is both a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It is an important migratory stop and nesting area for a variety of water birds, including the Dalmatian Pelican and Greater Flamingo.

To the west of Alakol, we can see colourful agricultural structures in an alluvial fan. The triangular shape is formed when water runoff from the Dzungarian Alatau mountains, visible below, reaches the plain and spreads out, leaving behind fertile soil.

Lake Alakol is near the border with China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, in an area shaped by the Dzhungarian Gate. This natural valley forms a mountain pass through the Dzungarian Alatau range and connects central Asia to China.

The colourful feature visible south of Alakol is Aibi Lake, or Ebi Lake, the largest saltwater lake in northwest Xinjiang. It has shrunk dramatically over the years and the vibrant colours in the northern part of the basin show where the soil has been exposed during the acquisition period.

West of the lake, the Bortala Valley is scattered with a patchwork of farms and settlements along the course of the Bortala River. The colours highlight the various crop types and stages of growth, while built-up areas appear bright grey and white.

[jacqmans]

Earth from Space: Cloud-free Iceland
30/05/2025

The Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission shows us a rare, cloud-free view of Iceland captured on 17 May 2025.

In its remote location in the North Atlantic Ocean, Iceland is the westernmost European nation and one of the most northerly inhabited places on the planet. The island is famous for its scenic landscape, including volcanoes, glaciers, lakes, lava fields, hot springs and more than 4800 km of coastline.

Iceland’s climate makes it an ideal habitat for sparse grassland, extensive bogs and moors, rather than lush forests. It would therefore be difficult to differentiate vegetation and bare ground in a true-colour satellite image.

This false-colour image has been processed using the near-infrared channel of Sentinel-3’s Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI). It highlights vegetation in shades of red and makes it easier to distinguish between vegetated areas and bare ground or solidified lava fields which appear brownish. Darker or even black areas denote fresher lava flows.

More than 11% of the island is covered by glaciers – more than on the whole of continental Europe. The large, white area on the eastern part of the island is the Vatnajökull National Park, home to the Vatnajökull Glacier. With an area of around 8400 sq km and an average ice thickness of more than 900 m, Vatnajökull is the biggest glacier in Europe.

The white, circular patch in the centre is Hofsjökull, the country’s third largest glacier and its largest active volcano. The elongated white area west of Hofsjökull is Langjökull, Iceland’s second largest ice cap.

Water bodies such as rivers and glacial lakes appear as emerald green shapes scattered around the island. The colour is due to sediment in the water, which then flows into the ocean, dyeing its dark blue waters in hues of green visible along the coasts.

At top-left, light blue swirls are visible in the sea off the coast of Greenland. These are small sea-ice fragments blown by the wind and ocean currents.

This image was captured during an unusual heatwave that hit Iceland from 13-22 May 2025. On 17 May, Sentinel-3 was also able to obtain an accurate image of the land surface temperature, using data from the mission's Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer instrument.

[jacqmans]

Mount Etna erupts
03/06/2025

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission has captured a dramatic image of Mount Etna erupting on 2 June 2025 when a massive plume of ash, gas and rock suddenly burst from Europe's largest active volcano. According to news reports, the blast sent tourists fleeing as the eruption unfolded on the island of Sicily in Italy.

Mount Etna is one of the world’s most active volcanoes, but there hasn’t been an eruption of this magnitude since 2014, according to the national Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology Observatory. The observatory reported that preliminary observations show a partial collapse of the northern flank of the volcano’s southeast crater. 

The image here clearly depicts the lava flow and huge plume of smoke and ash.

[jacqmans]

Earth from Space: Saharan dust plume
05/06/2025

A thick plume of sand and dust from the Sahara Desert is seen in these images blowing from the west coast of Africa across the Atlantic Ocean.

Sandstorms, which are common over the Sahara, occur when large amounts of dust particles from the desert are swept up by strong winds. They can float for days or even weeks, depending on how dry, fast and turbulent the air masses become. Winds in the higher troposphere can then transport the dust across oceans and continents. This kind of Saharan dust storm is also known as the Saharan Air Layer, which typically forms between late spring and early autumn.

These images combine different observations from Copernicus Sentinel-3 and Copernicus Sentinel-5P on 7 May 2025. The Sentinel-3 optical image on the left shows a dense, orange plume of Saharan sand over approximately 150 000 sq km of the eastern Atlantic Ocean. The small islands of Cabo Verde peek out from beneath the clouds in the top left corner.

In the right image, a Sentinel-5P view has been overlaid on the Sentinel-3 image to show the concentration of aerosols in the dust plume: darker tones of orange denote denser aerosol concentrations. Sentinel-5P carries the state-of-the-art Tropomi instrument that maps a multitude of trace gases and can measure the aerosol index, which is an indicator of the presence and intensity of aerosols such as dust.

This combination of Sentinel-3 and -5P satellite imagery allows scientists to improve their understanding of these massive dust clouds, and forecasters to provide better air quality predictions.

These data are extremely important for air-quality models used by, for example, the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service to forecast air quality on a global scale by assessing the concentration of atmospheric particulate matter, as well as to monitor and predict how far the dust layer will travel and how it develops and therefore the effects it will have locally.

Sandstorms can be a major contributor to reduced air quality and can cause hazards to human health. The suspended particles, in fact, cause hazy skies, trigger air quality alerts and, when breathed, can lead to cardiovascular conditions and lung problems.

On the other hand, the travelling Saharan dust plays an important role in our ecosystem. It is a major source of minerals and nutrients for phytoplankton and for ecosystems on the other side of the world, including the Amazon rainforest.

[jacqmans]

Earth from Space: East Kalimantan, Borneo
13/06/2025

Copernicus Sentinel-1 captured this image over part of eastern Borneo, a tropical island in Southeast Asia.

Borneo, the world’s third largest island, is shared between Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia. The area pictured here covers part of the East Kalimantan province in Indonesia, with the Makassar Strait to the east, a narrow passage in the west-central Pacific Ocean.

This radar image is from 31 March 2025, it is in false-colour and in ‘dual polarisation’ horizontal and vertical radar pulses. Compared to a single acquisition, this dual mode provides more detailed and complementary information about Earth’s surface. Different colours represent different types of land cover, such as yellow for dense vegetation and forests and dark blue for water.

Here, the land is dominated by forests, dotted with numerous small lakes appearing as dark blue spots. Brighter zones suggest built-up areas, mainly located along the course of the Mahakam River, which runs across the image. The capital of the province, Samarinda, can be seen on the northern bank of the river. Radar reflections from the ships stand out like shining jewels in the dark water of the river, as well as the sea.

The Mahakam River fans out into a labyrinth of distributaries before emptying into the Makassar Strait through a large and complex delta. The area alternates between agriculture and aquaculture, particularly shrimp farming, and extensive wetlands dominated by mangrove ecosystems. Zooming in, aquaculture structures can be seen in dark blue.

Varying colours of the seawater are caused by different atmospheric fronts and wind conditions, with stronger winds on the left in the lighter zone, and calmer conditions on the right.

Distinct greenish patches visible on the ocean surface, especially within the lighter blue area, are ‘rain cells’ – distinct areas of rainfall within a larger precipitation system. As we can see in the image, these cells can range in size, from small, localised showers to larger, more extensive rainfall events. As rain cells are easy to spot using satellite radar, scientists also exploit these images to monitor the weather.

[jacqmans]

Earth from Space: Zanzibar, Tanzania
04/07/2025

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captures a cloud-free image of Zanzibar and part of the eastern coast of Tanzania.

Covering an area of 1554 sq km, Zanzibar is an island in the Indian Ocean, about 35 km off the coast of east-central Africa.

This false-colour image was processed using the mission’s near-infrared channel, which highlights vegetation in red. This type of band combination is most commonly used to assess plant density and health: brighter red means higher density and healthier vegetation. Since the image was acquired in April 2025, during one of the region's rainy seasons, the dominant red colour indicates a prevalence of lush vegetation.

The strong contrast with built-up zones, which appear in shades of brown, makes these images important in clearly distinguishing between areas with vegetation and areas without. A perfect example is Zanzibar City, the island’s principal port and commercial centre, on the western side of Zanzibar Island. Its urban network of roads and buildings stands out clearly amongst the red vegetation.

The brown conurbation of Dar es Salaam, the largest city and major port of Tanzania, is visible on the mainland. Its beautiful beaches can be seen as long, white strips on the coast near the city.

Water bodies, such as the Indian Ocean, appear in black, while turbid waters, likely due to sediment from rivers and mostly visible along the mainland coast, appear in light green.

A large number of islands, most of which are uninhabited, are clear to see as red spots in the water indicating they are covered with dense vegetation. The islands just off the coastline of Dar es Salaam form a vast marine reserve system, protecting a variety of habitats and biodiversity.

Coral reefs can be seen where the dark colour of ocean water fades into lighter blue along the coasts of Zanzibar and around the numerous small islands and islets surrounding it. Signs of damage to the reefs, partly due to warmer sea temperatures, have recently been observed. In response, local initiatives are currently underway to protect and restore the reef ecosystem.

Thanks to its frequent revisits and high resolution, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission can contribute significantly to an increased understanding of pressures on coral reefs at a global scale.

[jacqmans]

Earth from Space: Lake District, UK
11/07/2025

The varied landscape of England’s Lake District is featured in this image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.

Located in northwest England in the county of Cumbria, the Lake District is shaped by a harmonious mix of several natural landforms, and extends to the coast of the Irish Sea, facing the Isle of Man, partly visible in the far left of the image. Lakes, hills, valleys, woodland, settlements and farmland combine to give life to England's largest national park, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017.

As we see in the image, the Lake District features a roughly circular core of mountains, deeply carved by valleys of glacial origin, hosting long, narrow lakes in their hollows. The region is home to England’s highest peak, Scafell Pike, which reaches an elevation of 978 m. On a clear day, the view can span from the Galloway Hills of Scotland to the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland, as well as the Isle of Man, and Eryri (Snowdonia) in Wales.

As the name suggests, the area is home to the principal lakes of England, including the largest, Windermere, whose elongated shape can be seen south of the central massif. Next to Windermere is Coniston Water and further west are Wasdale valley and Wastwater, the deepest lake in England.

Northwest of Wastwater lies Derwentwater, studded with wooded islands, and further east is Ullswater, the second largest lake in the region, known for the daffodils that inspired Wordsworth’s famous poem of the same name.

While the higher hills – also known as fells – are mainly rocky, deciduous native woodland occurs on many of the lower, steeper slopes. Extensive agriculture and farmland can be seen lower down around the mountains, interspersed with villages and settlements which appear as grey areas.

The Lake District is also home to varied freshwater habitats, such as mires, lakeshore wetlands, coastal heath, dunes and a number of estuaries, including Morecambe Bay, visible in the bottom right corner of the image. Covering an area of 310 sq km, Morecambe Bay is the UK’s largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and sand and supports a wealth of wildlife, with abundant bird and marine species.

Zooming in off the coast of Morecambe Bay, the turbines of several offshore wind farms stand out as white dots in the Irish Sea water.