--- title: See Sentinel-1B's First and Record Setting Image description: Europe's latest space satellite delivered a radar image less than two hours after being activated. canonical: https://time.com/4311734/sentinel-1b-european-space-agency-radar-first-image/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-28T20:57:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:00:54.165Z article:section: Science og:title: See a New Space Radar's Beautiful First Image og:description: It delivered an image only two hours after the radar was activated og:url: https://time.com/4311734/sentinel-1b-european-space-agency-radar-first-image/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4cb0244ec0f9c142/698891198e060121ba465a49/sentinel-1b-first-image-svalbard-archipelago.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Sentinel-1B-first-image-svalbard-archipelago og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See a New Space Radar's Beautiful First Image twitter:description: It delivered an image only two hours after the radar was activated twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4cb0244ec0f9c142/698891198e060121ba465a49/sentinel-1b-first-image-svalbard-archipelago.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See a New Space Radar's Beautiful First Image by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Apr 28, 2016 8:57 PM CUT  Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, with the Austfonna glacier clearly visible, April 28, 2016. Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, with the Austfonna glacier clearly visible, April 28, 2016.Copernicus Sentinel/ESA by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Apr 28, 2016 8:57 PM CUT The latest European space radar [produced its first image](http://m.esa.int/Our%5FActivities/Observing%5Fthe%5FEarth/Copernicus/Sentinel-1/Sentinel-1B%5Fdelivers "undefined") Thursday, after only being online for two hours. Sentinel-1B launched April 25 and produced the image after deploying its 12 meter-long radar (about 39 feet)—a record time for a space radar, according to the European Space Agency. The first image is of the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard, with the Austfonna glacier visible. The ESA, an intergovernmental body dedicated to European space exploration, operates the Copernicus program, which Sentinel-1B is a part of. Copernicus is the largest single earth observation mission, according to the ESA, and is comprised of multiple satellites that monitor the Earth below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4311734/sentinel-1b-european-space-agency-radar-first-image/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4311734/sentinel-1b-european-space-agency-radar-first-image/"},"headline":"See a New Space Radar's Beautiful First Image","datePublished":"2016-04-28T20:57:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:00:54.165Z","description":"It delivered an image only two hours after the radar was activated","url":"https://time.com/4311734/sentinel-1b-european-space-agency-radar-first-image/","keywords":["Space","Science topic","photography","LightBox"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4cb0244ec0f9c142/698891198e060121ba465a49/sentinel-1b-first-image-svalbard-archipelago.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4cb0244ec0f9c142/698891198e060121ba465a49/sentinel-1b-first-image-svalbard-archipelago.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sentinel-1B-first-image-svalbard-archipelago","caption":"Sentinel-1B-first-image-svalbard-archipelago","creditText":"Copernicus Sentinel/ESA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4311734/sentinel-1b-european-space-agency-radar-first-image/","name":"See a New Space Radar's Beautiful First Image"}}]}] ```