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| | | | | | | | ESA's Sentinel satellites |  | | | |
| | Sentinel-3 | |
Sentinel-3
Sentinel-3 is primarily a mission to support services relating to the marine environment, with capability to serve numerous land-, atmospheric- and cryospheric-based application areas. The first Sentinel-3 satellite is expected to launch in 2013, followed by a second so that they work together to provide maximum coverage.
The mission's main objective is to determine parameters such as sea-surface topography, sea- and land-surface temperature as well as ocean- and land-surface colour with high-end accuracy and reliability.
Benefiting from a proven heritage, Sentinel-3 carries several instruments:
- A topography system, which includes a dual-band Ku- and C-band altimeter based on technologies used on ESA's Earth Explorer CryoSat mission, a microwave radiometer for atmospheric correction and a DORIS receiver for orbit positioning.
- An Ocean Land Colour Instrument (OLCI), which is based on heritage from Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer MERIS instrument. The OLCI operates across 21 wavelength bands from ultraviolet to near-infrared and uses optimised pointing to reduce the effects of sun glint.
| | | Sentinel-3 will benefit services for the marine environment |
- A surface temperature system called Sea Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR), which is based on heritage from Envisat's Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR). The SLSTR uses a dual viewing technique and operates across eight wavelength bands providing better coverage than AATSR because of a wider swath width.
From a high-inclination Sun-synchronous polar orbit, the pair of operational Sentinel-3 satellites will provide global coverage in 2 days. Near-real time data processing and delivery will allow a broad range of GMES services for both the marine and land environment to continuously profit from the mission.
These services include, for example, maritime safety services that need ocean-surface wave information, surface temperature and data to improve ocean current forecasting systems; sea-water quality and pollution monitoring requiring advanced ocean colour products in both open ocean and coastal oceanographic application areas; sea-ice charting services requiring sea-ice extent and ice-berg detection; services to monitor land-use change, forest cover, photosynthetic activity, soil quality and fire detection.
Last update: 8 September 2009 | |
| | Related News ESA campaign reveals glimpse of future Sentinel-3 imageryContract signed for ESA’s Sentinel-3 earth observation satelliteMore Information Mission Requirements Document Sentinel-3Sentinel-3 facts & figures (.pdf)Related links European Commission GMES site
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