Airbus has been awarded the latest phase in the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Truths mission, as part of the Earth Observation Earth Watch programme.

The mission, which will provide the gold standard of calibration for space-based Earth observation, will improve our understanding of climate change and generate growth in the UK’s space sector.

The mission will measure the Sun’s radiation and the sunlight reflected off Earth’s surface, which will be used to improve climatological data sets and calibrate the observations of other satellites.