(CNN) -- The largest, most expensive satellite from the
European Space Agency has beamed back its first images, signaling the
start of a thorough examination of the health of the planet.
The $2.2 billion, nine-ton spacecraft, launched one month ago aboard
a powerful Ariane 5 rocket, is equipped with 10 different devices to
monitor the atmosphere, land, sea and ice.
Known as ENVISAT, the orbiter will provide the most detailed picture
yet of environmental conditions on Earth, according to space agency
scientists, who unveiled the inaugural images last week in Italy.
The probe went into service just in time to capture the
disintegration of an ice shelf in Antarctica. The rapid rate at which
the Larsen B shelf broke apart surprised scientists, who speculate that
it was hastened by global warming.
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An exploding population of phytoplankton swirls off the African coast in an image taken from the $2.2 billion orbiter.
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The March meltdown on the Antarctic Peninsula was captured by an ENVISAT radar.
Another camera onboard, known as the Medium-Resolution Spectrometer
(MERIS) instrument, monitors chlorophyll concentrations in oceans and
coastal areas.
It zoomed in on a phytoplankton bloom, or burgeoning population of
photosynthetic plankton, near the coast of Mauritania in northwest
Africa.
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