The European Union's Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission is providing far more images than previous generations of synthetic aperture radar satellites, bringing many significant advantages. One of them is determining the difference between naturally-occurring and polluting oil on the ocean surface.

With Sentinel-5 Precursor about to be packed up and shipped to Russia for lift-off in late September, media representatives, members of the UK Space Agency and National Centre for Earth Observation had the chance to see this Copernicus air-pollution monitoring satellite standing proud in the cleanroom.

A Russian Soyuz booster lifted off Friday from Kazakhstan on a complex mission to deploy 73 satellites into three different orbits, including a Russian spacecraft to locate forest fires, 48 CubeSats for Planet's global Earth observation fleet, and eight nanosatellites for Spire Global's commercial weather network.

Over the last few months, a chunk of Antarctica's Larsen C ice shelf has been hanging on precariously as a deep crack cut across the ice.

With its unique sensor and frequent revisit cycle, the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite can measure sea level in locations where not previously possible.

A Soyuz launch scheduled for 14 July will carry more than 70 small satellites, including spacecraft for four separate commercial remote sensing and weather constellations.

With the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite fully fledged and its data freely available, the task of monitoring and understanding our changing planet has been made that much easier. Seeing the effect spring has on our plant life is just one of its many uses.

Jason-2, the European/US cooperative mission between EUMETSAT, the French Space Agency CNES, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), will change orbit and take on an additional role next month.

An Indian mapping satellite and 30 other payloads vaulted into space Friday aboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), arriving in an on-the-mark orbit more than 300 miles above Earth.

A low Earth-orbiting satellite, the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor (Sentinel-5P) mission is dedicated to monitoring the composition of the atmosphere. Its data will be used largely by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. The mission will deliver information to monitor air quality, stratospheric ozone and will also be used for climate variables monitoring, and support European policy-making.

Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS) has delivered an advanced digital weather satellite instrument to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute that will help forecasters safeguard people in the region from typhoons and other severe weather.

ESA's Proba-V minisatellite has captured the forest fire raging in central Portugal, revealing blackened scars and columns of smoke as well as pinpointing active fire hotspots.

China launched two remote-sensing micro-nano satellites on a Long March-4B rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gobi Desert Thursday.

Designed to return unique images of the Earth for five years, the German radar satellite TerraSAR-X has outdone itself. The satellite has been in operation for twice that time.

With the Sentinel-2B satellite close to beginning its working life in orbit, this latest Copernicus satellite has linked up to Alphasat by laser, across almost 36 000 km of space, to deliver images of Earth just moments after they were captured.

The CryoSat Antarctica DEM described in this recent publication is now freely available for download. The file also contains the Product User Guide.

Last year, the Sentinel-2A satellite captured an intense algal bloom very close to the Belgian coast. The high-resolution capabilities of Sentinel-2's main instrument are allowing scientists to monitor algae blooms in areas previously not possible to observe with satellites.

The COSMO-SkyMed constellation is one of the most innovative Earth Observation programmes with four identical SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellites that "watch" the Earth day and night, under any atmospheric condition, thanks to the high-resolution X-band radars

While the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite is in orbit delivering a wealth of information about our home planet, engineers are putting its twin, Sentinel-3B, through a series of vigorous tests before it is shipped to the launch site next year.

Scientists observed the bleaching of Australia's Great Barrier Reef early this year using satellite images. While capturing these events from space has been difficult in the past, Sentinel-2's frequent revisits and its resolution makes it possible.