‘Colouring Water’ — a photograph by Michael Angelo Richardson from the Netherlands — has won the top prize in the Sentinel-2 Colour Vision photo competition. Richardson will receive a trip to the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), the European Space Agency (ESA)’s operations center in Darmstadt, Germany, as a guest at the VIP event on the night of the Sentinel-2A launch. The satellite is scheduled for liftoff on a Vega rocket on June 12, 2015, at 01:52 GMT (03:52 CEST; 22:52 local time on June 11).
The photo was selected by a panel of judges for its variety of colors while portraying Sentinel-2 application areas, such as forest and inland water. It was taken at the Twickel estate in Delden, the Netherlands, at the beginning of fall 2013 by Richardson.
With about 400 entries to the competition, the judges’ decision was not easy. Four runners-up were selected for their photographs of
- a close-up of a leaf (Plantropolis, Matthias Goetz)
- agricultural fields (Aargau, Switzerland, Felix Müller)
- a lovely, colorful countryside (Vémars, France, Ricardo Sanz Cortiella)
- an abstract interpretation of Sentinel-2’s ‘colour vision’ capabilities (View in Colour, Natxo Etxebarria).
Also, seven additional photographs were awarded honorable mentions.
About Sentinel-2A
Offering ‘colour vision’ for Copernicus, Sentinel-2A combines high-resolution and novel multispectral capabilities, a first for ESA. With a 290 km-wide coverage path and frequent revisits, the latest satellite for the European Commission’s environmental Copernicus program will deliver views of Earth’s vegetation and changing lands in unprecedented detail and accuracy.
The mission will mainly provide information for agricultural and forestry practices and for helping to manage food security. Satellite images will be used to determine key information about plants, such as chlorophyll and water content. This is particularly important for predicting yields effectively and applications related to Earth’s vegetation.
As well as monitoring plant growth, the mission will map changes in land cover and monitor the world’s forests. It also will provide information on pollution in lakes and coastal waters.
Images of floods, volcanic eruptions and landslides contribute to disaster mapping and help humanitarian relief efforts.
- View the complete Sentinel-2 Colour Vision image gallery: http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/content/search?SearchText=Sentinel-2+Colour+Vision+photo+competition&img=1&SearchButton=Go
- Follow the progress of the Sentinel-2 mission as it is readied for launch.