Proba-V, going beyond expectations for global vegetation monitoring
Although the PROBA-V adventure started in 2007, the global VEGETATION programme started in the eighties. With more than 30 years of research and experience, the SPOT-VEGETATION missions and the microsatellite PROBA-V resulted in a unique set of data related to global land changes.
PROBA-V will always be known as the small but brave Belgian satellite who bridged the gap between the SPOT VEGETATION and Copernicus Sentinel missions, hereby ensuring continuity in global vegetation monitoring and serving thousands of users worldwide. The satellite was launched in May 2013 with the intention to monitor our Earth’s surface for 2.5 years but provided us with much more.
After more than 6 years of operations,the year 2020 will mark PROBA-V’s transition from providing daily land surface observations into a scientific experimental phase. In addition, a first PROBA-V cubesat companion will be launched in the second half of 2021. These cubesats will complement and expand the PROBA-V observations in the visible to thermal domain and will facilitate for example land surface temperature and water stress research.
To celebrate this successful path and new adventures still to come we want to share with you a selection of fascinating images captured all around the world combined with interesting quotes and memorable moments provided by several key people and Earth observation users closely associated in the SPOT VEGETATION and PROBA-V missions.
