European Space Agency

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.
ESA is an international organisation with 20 Member States. By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, it can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country.
ESA’s job is to draw up the European space programme and carry it through. ESA’s programmes are designed to find out more about Earth, its immediate space environment, our Solar System and the Universe, as well as to develop satellite-based technologies and services, and to promote European industries. ESA also works closely with space organisations outside Europe.
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Earth Observation from Space: the Optical View (FutureLearn)

Discover how optical Earth observation data is gathered and used in this free online course from the European Space Agency (ESA). Earth observation (EO) encompasses a series of techniques that use remote sensing to monitor changes to our climate, and natural and built environment.

The Frozen Frontier: Monitoring the Greenland Ice Sheet from Space (FutureLearn)

Learn how the Greenland ice sheet is monitored from space and the ground, to understand our past, present and future climate. Made up of layers of compressed snow from over the last 100,000 years, the vast Greenland ice sheet acts as both a valuable record of our past climate [...]

Monitoring Climate from Space (FutureLearn)

Explore our planet from space and learn how Earth observation is used to monitor climate change, with this free online course. It is increasingly essential for us to study climate change across the planet at the highest level of detail possible. But how can we achieve such a comprehensive [...]