Arctic Space Centre and Sodankylä Space Campus, News

European Space Agency advancing the development of the state-of-the-art Supersite in Sodankylä

Malcolm Davidson, Head of ESA’s Earth Observation Campaigns section (left), Jouni Pulliainen, Director of the Space and Earth Observation Centre at the Finnish Meteorological Institute (centre), and Hannakaisa Lindqvist, Supersite Principal Investigator from the Finnish Meteorological Institute (right) at the Sodankylä Supersite launch event on 22 April 2026. Figure courtesy of Jari Mäkinen (Kupla Productions Ltd).

The European Space Agency and the Finnish Meteorological Institute are expanding the Sodankylä unique research infrastructure to a ‘supersite’.

Access the European Space Agency news article 06 May 2026 about the Sodankylä Supersite development in the following link: Putting the ‘super’ into a supersite for Earth observation

ESA is currently advancing the acquisition and deployment of new monitoring instruments at the site under its FutureEO initiative. This upgraded supersite will create valuable possibilities for Finnish businesses to design, evaluate, and refine cutting-edge environmental sensing technologies, while benchmarking their systems against established reference instruments installed at the location.

Enhancing the accuracy and reliability of satellite-generated information will also support the development of innovative Arctic-focused services and applications. The Sodankylä area reflects the characteristics of the broader boreal forest zone — the largest terrestrial biome on Earth, extending across northern parts of Canada, Scandinavia, and Russia. As a result, the region provides an excellent real-world environment for advancing satellite Earth observation methods and sensor technologies aimed at monitoring, analysing, and forecasting environmental changes in northern ecosystems.

More information

Supersite Principal Investigator, Prof. Hannakaisa Lindqvist, hannakaisa.lindqvist@fmi.fi

Supersite Co-PI, Dr. Anna Kontu, anna.kontu@fmi.fi

Leave a Reply