Correction: 'Great Wall of China' image was a river

Paris, 19 May 2004

For almost four years and hundreds of individual articles the ESA Portal has been bringing its readers the facts about Europe's space activities. Today however, we have to inform you of a mistake in one recent article.

The story published 11 May 2004 'Great Wall of China seen from space' featured image interpretation errors. The feature that was claimed to be the Great Wall is actually a river running into the Miyun Reservoir, northeast of Beijing. Further acquisitions of the region are being planned with other ESA instruments to investigate the subject further.

The errors arose because the image was not properly investigated in advance of publication. ESA apologises for this editorial oversight.

The growth of our service is dependent on our readers, not just as our audience but also because you provide us with valuable feedback on our work. In this instance, we would particularly like to thank Albert Krisskoy, Associate Professor Gary Li of California State University and Dr. Zhimin Man of Fudan University, Shanghai, for their responses.

The erroneous item
Great Wall of China seen from space
11 May 2004 (contains link to the imagery)

European Space Agency
http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/index.ht ml
Item source: http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/SEMNA5HH ZTD_index_0.html