It may be among the strangest places on Earth, but this is where a lot of the European Union's Sentinel satellite equipment is being built for the Copernicus Earth Observation program. In Cannes, Thales Alenia Space is responsible for the Sentinel-1 satellites and a few of the others, too. The contractors include Airbus and many more. Sentinel-1B launches this week, making the first mission whole.

Sentinel-1A was the first to launch on April 3, 2014. Since then, two have followed - Sentinel-2A on June 23, 2015 and Sentinel-3A on February 16, 2016. This shot from Sentinel-3A is one of its earliest. It shows the River Nile and Delta and parts of the Middle East. Using a sea and land surface temperature radiometer (SLSTR), the satellite measures the energy radiating from Earth's surface.

This incredibly sharp image shows Red Sea coral reefs off the coast of Saudi Arabia. It was captured by Sentinel-2A on June 28, 2015. The quality of the Sentinel images is a vast improvement on previous satellite missions, such as Envisat. The Sentinel-2 mission is for land monitoring. It provides images of vegetation, soil and water cover, inland waterways and coastal areas.

This false color image of south Khartoum in Sudan was one of the first from Sentinel-2A, captured five days after it arrived in orbit. In the top right corner you can see a bit of the Blue Nile River. The scattered red blotches along the river banks indicate dense vegetation, which is one of the things the satellite monitors. It's a false color image, as color was added to aid interpretation.

This is another great shot from Sentinel-2A, showing Sierra Leone in West Africa. The country's capital, Freetown, is on the peninsula at the bottom of the image. Its economy depends on the natural deep water harbor. But ESA says the estuary is "threatened by a growing population [and] unauthorized housing development," which has caused the removal of many hectares of mangrove vegetation.

Many of the Sentinel images are like works of art. You don't really have to know what's going on to appreciate them. But scientists, policymakers and authorities charged with national security rely on satellite imagery. And given the tools and skills, normal folk can benefit too. The Copernicus program is driven by a principle of Open Data. This shows Yuma in southwestern Arizona.

This is the Aral Sea as captured by Sentinel-1A. It's a composite of three radar scans taken between 2014 and 2015. ESA says the Aral Sea is a "striking example of humankind's impact on the environment and natural resources. [...] It has lost around 90 percent of its water volume since 1960 because of Soviet-era irrigation schemes." The different colors show the changes between the scans.

Captured by Sentinel-2A, this image shows a vibrant Berlin, the German capital, in exquisite detail. It shows how green the city is, with the Tegeler See and Wannsee on the western side. There's also the former airport, the Tempelhofer Feld, in the lower center of the image, which in summer blooms with people, kites and bikes. All these images can be seen in full: www.esa.int/spaceimages/Images

Authorities issued widespread weather warnings in the south German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, which were expected to experience some of the worst of the bad weather. In Bavaria, around 60,000 homes were without electricity after the storm caused a power cut.

Long-distance and regional train services were suspended overnight across Germany, and commuters faced disruption as they tried to take trains to work on Monday morning with some services still canceled or delayed, with trains traveling at slower speeds due to high winds.

In Germany's northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein there was meter-high spray from the North Sea at the ferry port of Dagebüll. In St. Peter-Ording, also on the North Sea coast, some parents took their children out to play in the wind, along with some brave kitesurfers.

Many flights were cancelled but the ferocious gusts also aided flights. Propelled by wind from the storm, a British Airways plane was thought to have made the fastest New York-to-London flight made by a conventional airliner, completing the 3,500 mile journey in just four hours and 56 minutes.

Winds have knocked over trees and other heavy objects, causing damage to vehicles and disrupting traffic. Several injuries were reported, including one woman in critical condition in Germany after a tree fell on her vehicle.

Storm Sabine, or Ciara as it's called outside of Germany, brought down trees and powerlines as it lashed parts of northern Europe. More than 30,000 homes in Britain, and some 10,000 in Ireland, were without electricity.

Heavy rain pounded much of the UK, prompting the Met Office to issue 190 emergency flood warnings. Waters rose rapidly in Mytholmroyd (pictured) in England's north, after the River Calder burst its banks.

The howling winds also caused traffic chaos, with scores of flights and train services canceled across the continent. The UK Met Office said the highest wind speed recorded was 150 kilometers (93 miles) per hour at the northern Welsh village of Aberdaron.

The storm also battered the city of Wimeureux and other parts of northern France, where parks, cemeteries and outdoor markets were closed. The bad weather affected Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark and Germany, before moving east to Czechia.

Sabine arrived on Germany's northwest on Sunday morning, hitting the coastal towns of Emden and Kiel, and the North Sea island, Sylt. Ferry services in the region were canceled, while the ports of Dover in England and Calais in France were shut down completely because of the dangerous swell.

Düsseldorf and Frankfurt airports in western Germany canceled scores of flights on Sunday as Sabine began moving south towards the state of Bavaria. Flights were also affected in the cities of Hamburg, Berlin, Hannover, Dortmund, Cologne and Stuttgart. Similar disruptions were reported at London's Heathrow Airport, Brussels Airport and Amsterdam's Schiphol.

Wind speeds on northern Germany's highest peak, the Brocken, reached 156 km/h on Sunday evening, according to the German weather service. Forecasts warned there could be gusts as strong as 180 km/h there overnight.

Authorities warned millions of people in the affected countries to stay indoors. Dozens of events were called off as a result of the weather, including the Premier League football match between Manchester City and West Ham, and a German soccer league game between Borussia Mönchengladbach and Cologne. All schools were closed on Monday in Luxembourg and the western German city of Cologne.

Jason-3 was launched on January 17th, 2016. It took over from Jason-2 in October of that year. The satellite became part of a large Network of NASA satellites, looking at sea Levels and at oceanic and atmospheric currents.

Level recorders installed at shore can't answer that question. However, satellites can recognize continental shift. That's why NASA launched its Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM) using the satellites Topex/Poseidon, Jason-1, -2 and later -3 to solve the mystery. Jason-2 sent us topographical radar images, and its successor Jason-3 has additional tools on board -- a radiometer and a laser.

Without Earth observation satellites, we would not understand our planet as well as we do now. Sentinel-2 took this picture of the northern shore of the Adriatic with the Italian Alps in late June, shortly after its launch. Sentinel-2 is part of the European Space Agency's (ESA) comprehensive Copernicus Earth observation program.

Sentinel-2 uses a spectrometer, which is a special camera that can take pictures at numerous light wavelengths. This enables scientists to see all kinds of details in pictures that you can't detect with the naked eye, including the status of vegetation or the moisture in the soil. Here, engineers are preparing the satellite for its journey.

A view of Northern Italy: The city of Pavia in the upper left corner with the river Ticino flowing into the larger Po. The infrared spectrum of the camera reveals the state of the agriculture: Scientists can even see what is growing on the fields - is it corn, wheat or pumpkins on this one?

Many Earth observation satellites are not alone in their mission; they do their job better as a team. This is also true for Sentinel-1 and -2, which eventually will each get a support satellite. Together they can document every spot on the surface of the planet every five days. The Copernicus Program includes six modules (Sentinel-1 through -6) for all kinds of tasks.

One task is measuring the topography of the land, just as Jason-3 does with the sea. Sentinel-1 is built for that, with its large radar antennas. It can detect hills, mountains and valleys. The data the satellite generates can later be combined with the data from Sentinel-2 or other satellites. This gives farmers, developers and environmental agencies exactly the information they need.

The radar-eye of the satellite took this picture of the Dutch coast. It shows that the country is not as flat as many may believe. Dunes, buildings and levees can be clearly seen.

ESA's SWARM mission is a whole different type of Earth observation: Three satellites are circling the Earth, looking deep into the core of the planet. The SWARM satellites have been recording changes in the magnetic field of the Earth since 2013.

Scientists are interested in the Earth's magnetic field because it is constantly changing. Under the Earth's crust, magma is constantly moving and changing the magnetic makeup. Even the magnetic poles sometimes swap places. Knowing this is extremely important for the sea and air navigation.

Earth magnetism also affects our relationship to the sun. The magnetic field shields us against cosmic and sun rays, which can be particularly strong after sunspot eruptions. If the Earth's magnetism changes, it also changes the way particles from solar rays travel around the Earth's poles. Satellites looking toward Earth can sometimes reveal these secrets from far away.