Launch date

Launcher

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

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

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