Artist's view of the Proba-V satellite

Artist's view of the Proba-V satellite. The ‘V’ in its name stands for Vegetation: Proba-V will fly a reduced-mass version of the Vegetation instrument currently on board the Spot satellites to provide a daily overview of global vegetation growth. Planned to be launched in 2013, ESA’s Proba-V mission will perform daily tracking of global vegetation growth. At the same time, the small satellite will also monitor the space environment with a compact radiation instrument. Proba-V’s Energetic Particle Telescope (EPT) will record the charge, energy and angle of incoming charged particles along a wide range of energies across a 50° field-of-view. The Proba satellites are part of ESA’s In‑orbit Technology Demonstration Programme: missions dedicated to flying innovative technologies.