ESA's Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes (D-EOP) has opened a Request For Information (RFI) directed at collecting ideas for the implementation of some Thematic Exploitation Platforms (TEPs) as part of the evolution of the Payload Data Ground Segment (PDGS) operations concept.

In this study the team focuses on the Zhongba earthquake sequence, which occurred between 2004 and 2008 within the South Lunggar Rift in the southwest part of the Tibetan Plateau.

ESA's first Sentinel satellite dedicated to Europe's Copernicus environmental monitoring programme is nearing completion in readiness for launch. The series of Sentinels and this ambitious programme were much in focus at the Living Planet Symposium this week.

Multisensoral remote sensing is a valuable method to gather the necessary water budget components with appropriate spatial coverage and with high temporal resolutions for closed basin lakes on the Tibetan Plateau due to their remote and hard to access locations.

The Azov Sea is a shallow inland sea adjoined by Ukraine on the west and Russia on the east, and gets most of its water input from the runoff from the Don River, the Kuban River, and several smaller rivers; thus, its water quality is heavily influenced by the fluvial runoff. Tremendous industrialisation in the last couple of decades, leading to increased influx of terrigenous nutrients, has produced significant eutrophication in the Azov Sea. This has caused drastic changes in the ecosystem, resulting in tremendous loss of fish population.

If you are a university student from Poland, Czech Republic or Romania and you would like to be on the space scene when the first Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite starts monitoring the Earth next year, apply for the new ESA 'Sentinel-1 Student Transponders' project.

The first satellite for Europe's new environmental monitoring programme is being put through some pretty harsh treatment to make sure that it can cope with the huge temperature changes as it orbits Earth.

Europe's ambitious global environmental monitoring programme will now be able to move into operation thanks to the European Parliament's approval of the multiannual financial framework budget for 2014-20.

Those who need satellite data for a wide range of applications, from mapping sea ice and tracking maritime traffic to monitoring geohazards over land, are eagerly awaiting the launch of Sentinel-1. ESA is helping users get ahead of the game by offering test data and simulated images.

A new data processor is creating maps of land deformation from satellite radar data over larger areas and with higher precision than ever before. These maps can be used to detect and monitor geological hazards.