Facts and figures
| Launch date |
Sentinel-3A: 16 February 2016 Sentinel-3B: 25 April 2018 |
| Launcher | Rockot, from Plesetsk, Russia |
| Orbit | Polar, Sun-synchronous at an average altitude of 814.5 km |
| Revisit time (ocean) | SLSTR ~1 day, OLCI ~2 days, SRAL has a 47 km ground track separation after 27 days (at the equator), all cases using two-satellite constellation separated by 140° in the same orbit |
| Life | Planned for seven years (carries consumables for 12 years) |
| Satellite | 2.2 m long, 2.2 m wide, 3.7 m high and a mass of 1150 kg (including 130 kg fuel) |
| Instruments | Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) covering 21 spectral bands (400–1020 nm) with a swath width of 1270 km Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) covering 9 spectral bands (550–12 000 nm), dual-view scan with swath widths of 1400 km (nadir) and 740 km (oblique view), two dedicated fire channels Synthetic Aperture Radar Altimeter (SRAL) Ku-band (300 m after SAR processing) and C-band Microwave Radiometer (MWR) dual frequency at 23.8 & 36.5 GHz |
| Receiving stations |
Scientific data: transmitted to core Sentinel ground stations Telemetry data: transmitted to and from Kiruna in Sweden |
| Main applications | Monitoring sea-level change, sea-surface temperature, water quality, sea-ice extent and thickness; numerical weather prediction for ocean and land; land-cover mapping; monitoring vegetation health, ice sheets, glacier melting, water resources, rivers and lake height; wildfire detection and measuring aerosols and carbon release |
| Mission | Developed by ESA, jointly operated by ESA and Eumetsat |
| Funding | ESA Member States and the European Union |
| Prime contractors | Thales Alenia Space France for satellite, OCLI & SRAL; Leonardo for SLSTR; Airbus (Spain) for MWR |
| Data access | dataspace.copernicus.eu |
