European Space Agency
European Space Agency is a research center that is part of the pulse of the water sector. Here we bring together everything it publishes on Smart Water Magazine: its news, its blogs and the events it takes part in.
Hotter weather not diminishing runoff and river discharge as expected
Runoff and river discharge are important components in Earth’s water cycle, but as climate change tightens its grip, heatwaves and instances of drought are increasingly hitting the headlines. One would assume that this hotter weather leads to reduced water runoff, but an innovative way of using information from satellites suggests that this isn’t always the […]
Vast iceberg breaks off near UK Antarctic base
Satellite imagery confirms an enormous iceberg, around five times the size of Malta, has finally calved from Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf. The new berg, estimated to be around 1550 sq km and around 150 m thick, calved when the crack known as Chasm-1 fully extended northwards severing the west part of the ice shelf. This […]
New water map of Mars will prove invaluable for future exploration
A new map of Mars is changing the way we think about the planet's watery past, and showing where we should land in the future. The map shows mineral deposits across the planet and has been painstakingly created over the last decade using data from ESA's Mars Express Observatoire pour la Mineralogie, l'Eau, les Glaces et l'Activité […]
Europe’s Rhine River runs dry
Water levels on the Rhine River, Europe's second-largest river, have continued to drop owing to soaring temperatures and lack of rainfall, preventing many vessels from navigating through the waters at full capacity. The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission has captured part of the Rhine River near Cologne, showing the stark difference between August 2021 and August 2022. […]
Historic Greenland ice sheet rainfall unraveled
For the first time ever recorded, in the late summer of 2021, rain fell on the high central region of the Greenland ice sheet. This extraordinary event was followed by the surface snow and ice melting rapidly. Researchers now understand exactly what went on in those fateful summer days and what we can learn from […]
Satellite observations support latest IPCC climate report
Human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature, affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, according to the latest state of the climate report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published this week. The report utilizes satellite observations as crucial input, including several long-term datasets of key aspects of […]
ExoMars discovers hidden water in Mars’ Grand Canyon
The ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has spotted significant amounts of water at the heart of Mars’ dramatic canyon system, Valles Marineris.
All-female crew in water-tank spaceflight study
20 women are tucking themselves in a waterbed for five days as part of a dry immersion study to recreate some of the effects of spaceflight on the body. The campaign kicked off with the first two subjects at the Medes space clinic in Toulouse, France. Volunteers lay down in containers similar to bathtubs covered […]
Satellites map floods in western Europe
Record rainfall has caused swollen rivers to burst their banks and wash away homes and other buildings in western Europe – leading to more than 90 casualties and over 1000 people missing. Data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission are being used to map flooded areas to help relief efforts. The German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia […]