The first of the two flight models of the Sentinel-3 satellites, Sentinel-3A, was successfully launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in Russia by Eurockot Launch Services and Thales Alenia Space.
Sentinel-3 will provide a land-monitoring service with wildfire detection, land-cover mapping and vegetation health monitoring, providing complementary data to the multispectral optical mission of Sentinel-2, as well as new ocean measuring capabilities.
Sentinel-3 is also equipped with an Airbus Defence and Space-built microwave radiometer (MWR) used to remove signal errors caused by water vapour in the atmosphere. This allows accurate tracking over a variety of watery surfaces, including open ocean, coastal sea zones, sea ice and inland waters. The 26kg radiometer measures the thermal radiation emitted by Earth, enabling signal delays caused by moisture in the troposphere to be added to the altimeter pulses, to deliver more accurate data.
The radiometer design is in line with Sentinel-3’s mission designed to ensure long-term collection and operational delivery of high-quality measurements for ocean, land and atmospheric services. The satellites build upon the heritage and data from the Airbus-built missions of ERS, Envisat and SPOT, and include enhancements to meet the operational revisit requirements and to facilitate new products and an evolution of services. Observations will also extend to inland waters and coastal zones.
The primary application of the Sentinel-3 mission is to monitor the world’s oceans, measuring the temperature, colour and height of the sea surface and the thickness of sea ice. The data produced will allow scientists to monitor sea-level change and sea-surface temperature, manage water quality, track marine pollution and biological productivity.
Sentinel-3A is the size of a small car with a mass of 1150 kg and is designed for an operating life of seven years. In addition to the Sentinel-3A launch, Eurockot will orbit two more satellites for Europe´s Copernicus satellite constellation programme.
