ESA's Sentinel satellites

Overview


Sentinel-3
 
Sentinel-3
 
 
ESA is developing five new missions called Sentinels specifically for the operational needs of the GMES programme.

The Sentinel missions are based on a constellation of two satellites to fulfil revist and coverage requirements, providing robust datasets for GMES Services.
 

  • Sentinel-1 is a polar-orbiting, all-weather, day-and-night radar imaging mission for land and ocean services. The first Sentinel-1 satellite is planned for launch in 2013.

  • Sentinel-2 is a polar-orbiting, multispectral high-resolution imaging mission for land monitoring providing, for example, imagery of vegetation, soil and water cover, inland waterways and coastal areas. Sentinel-2 will also deliver information for emergency services. The first Sentinel-2 satellite is planned for launch in 2013.

  • Sentinel-3 is polar-orbiting, multi-instrument mission to measure variables such as sea-surface topography, sea- and land-surface temperature, ocean colour and land colour with high-end accuracy and reliability. The first Sentinel-3 satellite is planned for launch in 2013.

  • Sentinel-4 is a payload that will be embarked upon a Meteosat Third Generation-Sounder (MTG-S) satellite in geostationary orbit scheduled to be launched in 2019. Sentinel-4 is dedicated to atmospheric monitoring.

  • Sentinel-5 is a payload that will be embarked on a MetOp Second Generation, satellite, also known as Post-EPS, to be launched in 2020. Sentinel-5 is dedicated to atmospheric monitoring.

  • Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite mission is planned to launch in 2015, thereby avoiding data gaps between Envisat (Sciamachy data in particular) and Sentinel-5. This mission will be dedicated to atmospheric monitoring.

 
 
 
Last update: 16 March 2012


Data access

 •  GMES Space Component Data Access (http://gmesdata.esa.int/web/gsc/home)

More information

 •  GMES Space Component schedule (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/EarthObservation/GMES_SC_longterm.pdf)

Related links

 •  European Commission GMES site (http://ec.europa.eu/gmes/index_en.htm)
 •  Eumetsat (http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/index.htm)
 •  Sentinels for Science post-workshop forum (http://wiki.services.eoportal.org/tiki-index.php?page=Sentinel Wiki)

Announcements of Opportunity

 •  Mission Advisory Group Applications (http://missionadvice.esa.int)