ESA Living Planet Symposium concludes today, having brought together more than 6500 people across the Earth observation community. The takeaways include new connections, collaborations, not to mention the revelation of pioneering mission images. As a picture is worth a thousand words, here’s a selection that captures just a few of the many highlights.

ESA’s Living Planet Symposium came to a close today, concluding a week of networking, discussions and meeting of curious, scientific minds.    Today, one of the focal points was thermal imaging instruments, which are critical for monitoring land-surface temperature – and will be carried on upcoming missions such as the upcoming Copernicus Land Surface Temperature Mission.…

Scientists are harnessing data from ESA’s Swarm mission and ground-based instruments to precisely measure the strength and duration of intense upper-atmosphere heating – dramatic ‘hot flushes’ triggered by solar storms that also cause Earth’s tenuous outer atmospheric layers to expand rapidly. This research, funded by ESA’s Earth Observation FutureEO Science for Society initiative, offers crucial…

The fourth day of ESA’s Living Planet Symposium was busier than ever.   Today, ESA signed an agreement on integrating satellite data into global environmental reporting frameworks as part of ESA’s Fundamental Data Records Framework. A contract with the Finnish government and the Finnish Meteorological Institute was signed to establish a calibration and validation ‘supersite’. ESA and…

At the Living Planet Symposium, attendees have been hearing how ESA’s Next Generation Gravity Mission could provide the first opportunity to directly track a vital ocean circulation system that warms our planet – but is now weakening, risking a possible collapse with far-reaching consequences.

OBSERVER: Europe’s Digital Ocean showcased at third UN Ocean Conference evan Thu, 26/06/2025 – 13:15 During the Third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice, France, the European Digital Ocean Pavilion demonstrated digital innovation, science-based policy, and international collaboration for Ocean protection. Located in the Palais des Expositions from 2 to13 June, the Pavilion provided visitors…

The second of the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellites and the first instrument for the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission are ready for liftoff at Cape Canaveral in Florida, US. Live coverage of this launch will be shown on ESA WebTV, on Tuesday, 1 July.

At ESA’s Living Planet Symposium, scientists have unveiled how the combination of different long-term, high-resolution satellite datasets from ESA’s Climate Change Initiative is shedding new light on the South American Gran Chaco – one of the world’s most endangered dry forest ecosystems. These data reveal, in remarkable clarity, that fire is the primary driver of…

ESA is leading efforts to embed Earth observation data into more effective and resilient development financing. It is doing so in partnership with international financial institutions through its Global Development Assistance (GDA) programme. This topic was discussed today at ESA’s Living Planet Symposium.