The Copernicus Sentinel-2B satellite takes us over part of the western Netherlands on 16 March, with the capital city of Amsterdam at the centre of the image. Divided among some 90 islands, Amsterdam has more than 100 km of canals. The city lies about 2m below sea level – in fact, around a third of the country lies below sea level, making it susceptible to floods. Rising sea waters during periods of bad weather – called storm surges – are kept under control by dams, dikes, floodgates and natural sand dunes. While we can see the North Sea on the left, the water on the right is part of the Markermeer lake. This area was once a saltwater bay called the Zuiderzee, but was closed off by a dam in the 1930s. The bay was drained in stages and land reclaimed, including Flevoland on the right side of the image – one of the world’s largest artificial islands. Another relatively recent addition to the Dutch landscape is the neighbourhood of IJburg comprising six artificial islands east of Amsterdam. The first residents moved in only 15 years ago. Satellites like Sentinel-2 can help to monitor urban expansion. For example, in the upper-right corner we see what looks like an artificial island being built – but this structure is not present in satellite imagery from a year ago.
With more than 750,000 pieces of dangerous debris now orbiting Earth, the urgent need for coordinated international action to ensure the long-term sustainability of spaceflight was a major finding from Europe’s largest-ever conference on space debris. This was reported toward the end of April by the European Space Agency, ESA.
In the words of Brigitte Zypries, German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, speaking at a press briefing at the close of the European Conference on Space Debris held in Darmstadt, Germany: ‘We require a coordinated global solution to what is, after all, a global problem that affects critical satellites delivering services to all of us.’
ESA Director General Jan Woerner appealed to space stakeholders to keep Earth’s orbital environment as clean as possible. Developing and implementing the ESA Space Situational Awareness (SSA) programme as decided during ESA’s last ministerial council in 2016 will be a key factor.
