ESA - European Space Agency

The pre-launch roll call for the launch of the Copernicus Sentinel-6B satellite at ESA's ESOC mission control centre

The pre-launch roll call for the launch of the Copernicus Sentinel-1D satellite at ESA's ESOC mission control centre

Seas of the Sun is a film about a bold science mission and the people who made it possible. Hosted by Space Rocks founder and producer and co-director on Seas of the Sun, this series was produced by Philip Wilding, and with music by Karlotta Skagfield. Missions notes episode 3: The sounds of Cluster, with Seas of the Sun composer Karlotta Skagfield and data sonification contributors Klaus Nielsen (Maplepools) and Shane Embury (Napalm Death) who used science data to create a unique interpretation of the data that Cluster produced. See the full film on 30 October 2025: https://www.youtube.com/europeanspaceagency Learn more about the making of Seas of the Sun: http://www.spacerocksofficial.com

Seas of the Sun is a film about a bold science mission and the people who made it possible. Hosted by Space Rocks founder and producer and co-director on Seas of the Sun, this series was produced by Philip Wilding, and with music by Karlotta Skagfield. Missions notes episode 2: The science of Cluster, with Science Operations Support scientist Matt Taylor and Lucile Turc of the University of Helsinki. We explore the world of heliophysics and Cluster’s contributions to this burgeoning field of study. See the full film on 30 October 2025: https://www.youtube.com/europeanspaceagency Learn more about the making of Seas of the Sun: http://www.spacerocksofficial.com

Seas of the Sun is a film about a bold science mission and the people who made it possible. Hosted by Space Rocks founder and producer and co-director on Seas of the Sun, this series was produced by Philip Wilding, and with music by Karlotta Skagfield. Missions notes episode 1: The story of Cluster, with co-director Ryan MackFall of Crashburn Studios and Cluster veteran Gill Watson of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory on the unique challenges and opportunities of telling a story of this kind. See the full film on 30 October 2025: https://www.youtube.com/europeanspaceagency Learn more about the making of Seas of the Sun: http://www.spacerocksofficial.com

Launched in May 2024, ESA’s Earth Explorer EarthCARE mission has already been delivering remarkable data. Its four instruments have brought us groundbreaking insights into clouds, aerosols and Earth’s energy balance. The mission is being featured in an immersive installation called Hakuryu, which is Japanese for White Dragon, at the Living Planet Symposium in Vienna and here’s the accompanying sonification of atmospheric data downloaded from the EarthCARE satellite.

Every day, the Sun sends out bursts of energetic electrons into space. As these electrons collide with other charged particles, they produce radio waves—captured by the Radio and Plasma Waves (RPW) instrument on ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft. This track is a sonification of one six-hour data segment from a five-year dataset compiled by a team at Radboud University and Paris Observatory. Each drop in pitch represents electrons travelling further from the Sun, where fewer particles are left to interact with—causing the radio frequency (and now sound) to drop. Listen for the distinctive “pyoong” sounds—real solar radio bursts, each starting sharp and fading low. The data has been sped up for your ears; that dramatic burst at the centre? It lasted three hours in space. Credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/RPW, sonification by Katerina Pesini Acknowledgements: Philippe Zarka (IDL script), Alan Loh (Python script), Dimosthenis Bitzilos (video editing support)

The Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, part of the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme, will monitor air quality with its ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light spectrometer. The mission will be able to provide hourly observations, in a breakthrough for air quality monitoring from space. Simonetta Cheli, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes

The Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, part of the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme, will monitor air quality with its ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light spectrometer. The mission will be able to provide hourly observations, in a breakthrough for air quality monitoring from space. Giorgio Bagnasco, ESA's Sentinel-4 Project Manager

The Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, part of the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme, will monitor air quality with its ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light spectrometer. The mission will be able to provide hourly observations, in a breakthrough for air quality monitoring from space. Giorgio Bagnasco, ESA's Sentinel-4 Project Manager

Meteosat Third Generation Sounder-1 (MTG-S1) is the second satellite launch in the MTG constellation and is equipped with the Infrared Sounder instrument. It also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, which monitors air quality with its ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light (UVN) spectrometer. Cristian Bank, Eumetsat Director of Programme Preparation and Development

Meteosat Third Generation Sounder-1 (MTG-S1) is the second satellite launch in the MTG constellation and is equipped with the Infrared Sounder instrument. It also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, which monitors air quality with its ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light (UVN) spectrometer. James Champion, ESA’s MTG Project Manager

Meteosat Third Generation Sounder-1 (MTG-S1) is the second satellite launch in the MTG constellation and is equipped with the Infrared Sounder instrument. It also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, which monitors air quality with its ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light (UVN) spectrometer. Simonetta Cheli, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes

Meteosat Third Generation Sounder-1 (MTG-S1) is the second satellite launch in the MTG constellation and is equipped with the Infrared Sounder instrument. It also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, which monitors air quality with its ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light (UVN) spectrometer. James Champion, ESA’s MTG Project Manager

Meteosat Third Generation Sounder-1 (MTG-S1) is the second satellite launch in the MTG constellation and is equipped with the Infrared Sounder instrument. It also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, which monitors air quality with its ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light (UVN) spectrometer. Simonetta Cheli, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes

Meteosat Third Generation Sounder-1 (MTG-S1) is the second satellite launch in the MTG constellation and is equipped with the Infrared Sounder instrument. It also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, which monitors air quality with its ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light (UVN) spectrometer. Gareth Williams, Eumetsat, Head of Flight Operations

Meteosat Third Generation Sounder-1 (MTG-S1) is the second satellite launch in the MTG constellation and is equipped with the Infrared Sounder instrument. It also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, which monitors air quality with its ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light (UVN) spectrometer. James Champion, ESA’s MTG Project Manager

Meteosat Third Generation Sounder-1 (MTG-S1) is the second satellite launch in the MTG constellation and is equipped with the Infrared Sounder instrument. It also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, which monitors air quality with its ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light (UVN) spectrometer. Simonetta Cheli, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes

Meteosat Third Generation Sounder-1 (MTG-S1) is the second satellite launch in the MTG constellation and is equipped with the Infrared Sounder instrument. It also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, which monitors air quality with its ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light (UVN) spectrometer. Simonetta Cheli, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes

GO! GO! GO! All stations reporting in at the European Space Agency's European Spacecraft Operations Centre before ESA's Biomass satellite is launched on 29 April 2025.

Listen to the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft as it flew past Mercury on 8 January 2025. This sixth and final flyby used the little planet's gravity to steer the spacecraft on course for entering orbit around Mercury in 2026. What you can hear in the sonification soundtrack of this video are real spacecraft vibrations measured by the Italian Spring Accelerometer (ISA) instrument. The accelerometer data have been shifted in frequency to make them audible to human ears – one hour of measurements have been sped up to around one minute of sound. Sonification by Carmelo Magnafico (IAPS/INAF). Watch the video: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2025/01/The_sounds_of_BepiColombo_s_sixth_flight_past_Mercury

ESA's Euclid space telescope is creating the largest 3D-map ever made of our Universe, to study the most mysterious cosmic components: dark matter and dark energy. While scanning the sky, Euclid snapped a breathtaking image of Messier 78, a vibrant nursery of star formation. This audio is a sonification of the image, where the twinkling sounds represent the galaxies and stars in the frame. The steady undertone rising and falling in the background corresponds to the swathes of interstellar dust in the image. Sound design: Klaus Nielsen (@maplepools) Image: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay) and G. Anselmi Watch the video: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2024/12/Cosmic_jingles_listen_to_Euclid_s_image_of_M78

The ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission has been keeping a close eye on the Sun for more than three years, witnessing it becoming increasingly active as it approaches the peak in the 11-year solar cycle. This audio is a sonification based on the detected flares and the spacecraft's distance to the Sun. This audio is a sonification based on the detected flares (metallic clinks) and the spacecraft's distance to the Sun (background hum). Sound design: Klaus Nielsen (@maplepools) Image: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team Watch the video: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2024/12/See_and_hear_three_years_of_solar_fireworks

The pre-launch roll call for the launch of the Copernicus Sentinel-1C satellite at ESA's ESOC mission control centre

Proba-3 RollCall by European Space Agency

Hera pre-launch Roll Call by European Space Agency

All stations reporting in at the European Space Agency's European Spacecraft Operations Centre prior to the launch of the EU Copernicus Sentinel-2C Earth observation satellite on 5 September 2024.

EarthCARE Operations Director, Jose Morales, completes the final GO/NO GO RollCall before ESA's cloud and aerosol mission is launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on 29 May 2024. Mission Control is GO for launch.

ESA’s Earth Explorer Aeolus satellite was launched in August 2018 on a trailblazing mission to show how profiling Earth’s winds from space can improve weather forecasts and climate models. Marking the end of Aeolus’ remarkable mission, ESA worked with composer Jamie Perera to create a woodwind piece from data that spanned the lifetime of the satellite’s life in orbit around Earth. In the resulting orchestral piece, every second is a day in the life of Aeolus, with data represented by the following instruments: Piccolo: Rayleigh Top Altitude (the tops of clouds) Flute: Rayleigh Observation Type (density of clouds) Oboe: Rayleigh Reference Temperature (wind temperature) Clarinet 1: Rayleigh Wind Velocity (wind velocity) Clarinet 2: Rayleigh Wind Reference Pressure (air pressure) Bassoon/Bass Clarinet: Rayleigh Bottom Altitude (Earth’s surface) Ambient Synth: Validity Flag 0 (Aeolus downtime) You can also hear landmark events such as volcanic eruptions represented by drums, hurricanes represented by wind sound effects, and the Coronavirus pandemic represented by a pulsing synth. Read the full story: https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Aeolus/The_sound_of_Aeolus_will_blow_you_away Download the full performance guide: https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/EarthObservation/Life-of-Aeolus-Performance-Guide.pdf Credits: @jamieperera (2023). Used by permission. Data and guidance provided by Daniel Santillan; sonification programming by Adrian Lewis

Euclid Operations Director, Andreas Rudolph, completes the final GO/NO GO RollCall before ESA's cosmic detective is launched from Cape Canaveral on 1 July, to discover the secrets of the dark Universe. Mission Control is GO for launch.

Listen to the eerie sound of a boom on board ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft deploying in space during commissioning of the spacecraft in May 2023. Tip: use headphones or surround speakers for the best experience – the forward and backward wobbles of the boom come through the left and right channels. The vibration signal used to create the sound came from the accelerometer on board the main body of the spacecraft, which was switched on to monitor the reaction of the spacecraft to the boom’s deployment. The larger the vibration measured by the accelerometer, the louder the sound in the sonification. We can imagine the boom like a human arm initially folded into the body; the first higher-pitched ‘ring’ that you hear is the elbow opening and the second lower-pitched ring is the shoulder stretching up. Though the accelerometer measurements were not mandatory to validate the deployment, the engineers working on Juice were happy to see that they are very accurate. Turning the vibration signal into sound may help us understand the mechanics of the deployment. The boom is one of four 'Langmuir probes' that are part of Juice's Radio & Plasma Wave Investigation experiment. These probes will provide crucial information on the electric fields and plasma environment around Jupiter's moons. The sonification was prepared by Johannes Z. D. Mieth (TU Braunschweig) and Willi Exner (ESA). #ESAJuice #Jupiter #ESA #EuropeanSpaceAgency

Juice Operations Director, Andrea Accomazzo, completes the final GO/NO GO RollCall before ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer lifts-off on an Ariane 5 from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou on 14 April. Mission Control is GO for launch.

One year ago, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted, causing widespread destruction to the Pacific Island Nation of Tonga. It spewed volcanic material up to 58 km into the atmosphere, brought a nearly 15 m tsunami that crashed ashore, destroying villages, and created a sonic boom that rippled around the world – twice. Even one year on, interest in the extraordinary explosive eruption remains. A sound artist has recently recreated the sonification of the underwater volcanic eruption using rayleigh signal intensity data provided by the Aeolus Virtual Research Environment platform. Using wind data obtained on one of its overpasses over the ash cloud of the Hunga Tonga explosion, Jamie Perera used an audio sample of one of the shock waves, time-stretched it into a ghostly tone, and assigned it to harmonic values transcribed from 90 Aeolus readings taken over a duration of approximately 15 minutes. The listener hears one reading every two seconds, in a harmonic range that spans six piano octaves, the highest of which can be heard at around 01:18 minutes when the readings show the eruption’s dust plume at its highest peak (over 20.5 km). The artistic intention behind the sonification was to evoke the otherworldly landscape of Hunga Tonga and other volcanoes. Sonification credit/copyright: @jamieperera (2023). Used by permission. Data and guidance provided by Daniel Santillan. Thanks to Peter Bickerton and Jemma Foster. Originally created as part of Wild Alchemy Journal - Air Edition - Aeolus

Despite being essential to life on Earth, the magnetic field isn’t something we can actually see in itself, or ever hear. But, remarkably, scientists at the Technical University of Denmark have taken magnetic signals measured by ESA’s Swarm satellite mission and converted them into sound – and for something that protects us, the result is pretty scary. Sound design & concept: Klaus Nielsen (https://soundcloud.com/maplepools) and Nikolai Linden-Vörnle (https://soundcloud.com/kamikaze_vildsvin) Image by Crimson Sound (https://soundcloud.com/crimson-sound-483379629) Read the full story: https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Swarm/The_scary_sound_of_Earth_s_magnetic_field

Voice of Alexander Schmid, Eumetsat Programme Manager

Voice of Donny Aminou, MTG Payload Manager

Voice of Paul Blythe, MTG Programme Manager at ESA

Voice of Paul Blythe, MTG Programme Manager at ESA

Voice of Simonetta Cheli, Head of ESA Earth Observation Programmes

Voice of Paul Blythe, MTG Programme Manager at ESA

Voice of Alexander Schmid, Eumetsat Programme Manager

Voice of Simonetta Cheli, Head of ESA Earth Observation Programmes

Voice of Simonetta Cheli, Head of ESA Earth Observation Programmes

A team of experts, including scientists and musicians, has created a new way to explore the images and data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The first two tracks map the prismatic landscapes of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula as well as two views of the Southern Ring Nebula. A third track plays the notes of a transmission spectrum, which graphs the atmospheric characteristics of hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b. All allow listeners to pick out key features and experience the data in a new way.

A team of experts, including scientists and musicians, has created a new way to explore the images and data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The first two tracks map the prismatic landscapes of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula as well as two views of the Southern Ring Nebula. A third track plays the notes of a transmission spectrum, which graphs the atmospheric characteristics of hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b. All allow listeners to pick out key features and experience the data in a new way.

A team of experts, including scientists and musicians, has created a new way to explore the images and data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The first two tracks map the prismatic landscapes of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula as well as two views of the Southern Ring Nebula. A third track plays the notes of a transmission spectrum, which graphs the atmospheric characteristics of hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b. All allow listeners to pick out key features and experience the data in a new way.

A team of experts, including scientists and musicians, has created a new way to explore the images and data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The first two tracks map the prismatic landscapes of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula as well as two views of the Southern Ring Nebula. A third track plays the notes of a transmission spectrum, which graphs the atmospheric characteristics of hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b. All allow listeners to pick out key features and experience the data in a new way.

A team of experts, including scientists and musicians, has created a new way to explore the images and data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The first two tracks map the prismatic landscapes of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula as well as two views of the Southern Ring Nebula. A third track plays the notes of a transmission spectrum, which graphs the atmospheric characteristics of hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b. All allow listeners to pick out key features and experience the data in a new way.

A team of experts, including scientists and musicians, has created a new way to explore the images and data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The first two tracks map the prismatic landscapes of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula as well as two views of the Southern Ring Nebula. A third track plays the notes of a transmission spectrum, which graphs the atmospheric characteristics of hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b. All allow listeners to pick out key features and experience the data in a new way.

A team of experts, including scientists and musicians, has created a new way to explore the images and data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The first two tracks map the prismatic landscapes of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula as well as two views of the Southern Ring Nebula. A third track plays the notes of a transmission spectrum, which graphs the atmospheric characteristics of hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b. All allow listeners to pick out key features and experience the data in a new way.