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Living Planet: ESA takes care of our planet we must tell

One of the main European Space Agency (ESA) has always been the observation of Earth from space . This task is one of the most immediate returns and uses of space exploration to everyday life and began with the first meteorological satellite, Meteosat, in 1977. This was followed the whole series of Meteosat satellites and Envisat, which have helped increase our understanding about the health of the Earth and led to a daily monitoring of climate and environmental changes during these decades.

Our understanding and knowledge of our own planet, in this approach, an invaluable source of data and measurements in addition, with the growth of our knowledge is also required a simultaneous growth of accuracy of the data to analyze and its satellites that collect them. The ESA program "Living Planet" is aimed in this direction. In this program include missions exploration, observation, monitoring and meteorological research of the Earth. There are six missions planned in this category, while three others are under study.

The first two, GOCE and SMOS were launched in 2009, respectively in March and November. GOCE is designed to analyze with accuracy ever achieved, of all the deformations that separate our Earth from a perfect sphere. This also results in valuable information on the model of the gravitational field on Geodesy and physics of the Earth. SMOS, however, is in orbit to collect data about soil moisture and ocean salinity with the aim of improving our understanding of the water cycle and contribute the prediction of climate, including extreme and destructive as tornadoes and hurricanes.

In February 2010 the launch of CryoSat-2. His predecessor, CryoSat-1, has never reached its true orbit due to the explosion of the pitcher in October 2005. The mission will last at least three years and will aim to monitor the slightest change in the thickness of polar ice with an accuracy of centimeters in order to improve our understanding of the impact of climate change. The launch of SWARM in 2011, this mission, unlike all the previous ones, consists of a constellation of three satellites to study the magnetic field and its changes, mirror what is happening beneath the surface of our planet.

The last two ADM-Aeolus and EarthCARE missions are planned for 2011 and 2013 and are designed to improve our models for weather forecasts. The first is aimed, in particular, the study of winds and is seen as the first mission of a series dedicated to improving the measurements of atmospheric currents. EarthCARE, however, is a Europe-Japan joint mission to improve our numerical weather models.

We then experiencing a period of study and exploration to better understand, perhaps from a perspective a bit 'more generally, what we have daily before our eyes and take care of home.

Pierpaolo Pergola

In the image above summarizes the main objectives of the Living Planet: The Earth's surface, the processes taking place inside, oceanography and geodesy (ESA). In the picture below right, a photograph of Earth taken from a satellite in orbit around it (NASA).