An international team of scientists has mapped the global footprint of giant methane leaks from oil and gas operations for the first time, thanks to high-resolution data delivered by Copernicus Sentinel-5P. This analysis of the potent planet-warming gas – which revealed thousands of large plumes that spilled out from major oil and gas pipelines – could have a key role in the revitalised international drive to tackle the climate crisis.

A team of European remote sensing scientists has introduced a marine benchmark dataset for the detection of marine litter using Copernicus Sentinel-2 multispectral data. This open-access database enables the research community to develop marine debris detection solutions based on artificial intelligence.

It is a benchmark for developing and evaluating machine learning algorithms and the first dataset based on multispectral Copernicus Sentinel-2 data, which distinguish marine litter from co-existing marine features by exploring the spectral behaviour of certain floating materials, sea state features and water types.

A pioneering open-access environmental monitoring system that helps to fuel the sustainable management of the natural world has launched.

The Landscape Evolution and Forecasting Toolbox, or LEAF, transforms data delivered by the Sentinel-2 mission of the European Union’s Copernicus Programme into global maps that reveal different aspects of vegetation cover, including canopy water content, leaf area index and many more.

Researcher, Sai Kiran Kuntla, recently authored a review article that emphasises the potential of three of the Earth observation satellites of the European Union’s Copernicus programme - Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, and Sentinel-3 - at various phases of flood management and the overall transformation this fleet of satellites has brought to the field of flood research and applications.

Europe’s flagship Earth observation programme is supporting the rapid international response to a violent series of tsunamis that was provoked by a powerful underwater volcano eruption in the southern Pacific Ocean.

Earth Observation data offer a powerful approach for accurate and cost-effective monitoring of hydrological regimes and seasonal inundated transition zones. Leveraging the capacity provided by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions, the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH) has developed automatic services for the creation of inundation maps.

In this video, Bas Altena of Utrecht University describes how Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery is enhancing glacier monitoring.

Researchers at the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH) and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), in Greece, have been studying how a Copernicus Sentinel-2 image could be used to estimate pixel values of canopy height—thus improving sustainable ecosystem management.

In the frame of ESA’s Sentinel-1 Project, scientists at TU Wien processed and subsequently aggregated 500,000 individual Copernicus Sentinel-1 SAR scenes to a set of global mosaics, describing our planet as perceived by a radar—as such, the obtained radar signals depict an additional source of information, measuring ground variables from another physical perspective, revealing new properties.

Synthetic Aperture Radar systems, such as those on the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites, are a powerful tool for observing the sea surface at high spatial resolution over large areas—thus providing wind speed and direction measurements in the ocean, especially in marine coastal areas.

Within the framework of the showcase myECOSYSTEM of the H2020 e-shape project, improved Sentinel-2 snow cover data products could help support the management and the environmental assessment of selected Protected Areas.

Near-real time mapping of water bodies from satellite imagery plays a critical role in water management. Continuous monitoring of environmental change over time, like the estimation of water availability or prediction of floods and droughts, is essential to human activities such as agriculture, hydrology and water management—and Copernicus Sentinel-2 data are lending a hand.

While Canada recently underwent scorching temperatures resulting in deadly fires, data from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission helped track essential information.

At the end of April, an iceberg with its longest axis of about 7.3 nm had been observed by Copernicus Sentinel-1 as it approached eastwards through the Scotia Sea, towards Saunders Island in the Southern Atlantic Ocean.

The drift of the iceberg was tracked since then, showing a rather surprising course. Both SAR and optical sensor images have presented interesting oceanographic and atmospheric phenomena, offering synchronous information over such large areas, which would not have been achieved by normal spot observations/measurements.

An unnamed tabular iceberg drifting eastward towards the uninhabited Saunders Island was caught by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite—making its monitoring a near-real-time event.

In Denmark, land areas and infrastructure are undergoing subsidence depending on soil type and stability, and changing ground water levels and foundation. As of 2014, data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites have been freely available—becoming a game changer for the growing needs for such measurements in Denmark, thus helping to develop a national monitoring program.

On 19 March, New South Wales, Australia, was struck with extreme rainfall resulting in significant flooding in a number of areas along its central and northern coastline—data from Copernicus Sentinel-1 allowed the Copernicus Emergency Management Service to come into action, lending a hand to rescue efforts.

With Europe's tallest active volcano of 3325 metres frequently erupting, volcanology experts are using data from the Copernicus Sentinels to monitor the situation for environmental and safety impacts, since its various recent explosions.

Part of the Aquatic Ecosystem Analysis Bachelor Programme, European students gathered online from four different countries, to learn about Remote Sensing for Water Quality Monitoring over the Guadiana River catchment, a cross-border resource between Portugal and Spain, using Copernicus Sentinel-2 data.

The monitoring of frozen river break-ups at high latitudes is a daunting task, where hazards such as flooding and infrastructure damage can occur in mere days and are difficult to forecast— the monitoring from space of how river ice break-ups unfold and progress could help mitigation efforts, create data for reanalysis and aid hazard assessments.