With increasing levels of greenhouse gases causing our climate to change, it is important to understand exactly where these gases come from and how they disperse in the atmosphere. A recent field campaign has shown that a potential new satellite could provide the answers.

Researchers from three continents gathered at ESA's technical heart in the Netherlands for the inaugural Alcantara initiative workshop - fostering cooperation between research groups in Europe and those beyond, to jointly tackle key knowledge gaps in space research.

More than 5000 images, 65 daily global maps and six 10-day global syntheses, plus a quick peek at the Olympics: in its first two months of work, the vegetation-monitoring Proba-V minisatellite has yielded a valuable harvest for around a hundred scientific teams around the globe.

The Kelut volcano on Indonesia's Java island erupted on 13 February 2014. While disaster-management authorities are busy on the ground, satellites are tracking the major cloud of ash and sulphur dioxide as it spreads in the atmosphere.

Radiant skin is considered a sign of good health in humans, but plants also glow when they are well. A potential new ESA satellite could use this fluorescence to track the health and productivity of vegetation worldwide.

Satellite observations of global sea-surface temperature show that a 30-year upward trend has slowed down within the last 15 years. Climate scientists say this is not the end of global warming, but the result of a rearrangement in the energy flow of the climate system and, in particular, how the ocean stores heat.