The smallest of ESA's satellites, Proba-2, caught an impressive image of Typhoon Soulik's swirling eye as it approached Taiwan (Province of China) on July 19, 2013. Hours later, Soulik's approach produced mass evacuations in Taiwan due to the torrential rainfall and fierce winds caused by the Typhoon.
"Similar compact imagers could in future keep watch on satellite surfaces to look out for damage or environmental effects", informs the European Space Agency (ESA) on their website. Proba-2 is less than a cubic metre in size, however, it has been equipped with 17 experimental technologies with the primary goal of observing solar activity and space weather. The satellite has a compact Exploration Camera, X-Cam, which observes in the visible and infrared with a 100° field of view. The X-Cam is positioned on the underside of the satellite and is provided with the intelligence to judge the best automatic exposures for optimised image quality.
