Sentinels for Copernicus
On 16 February 2016 at 18:57 CET (17:57 GMT), Sentinel-3A will be launched on top of a Rockot from the Russian Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
This satellite will be the third Sentinel for the Copernicus Programme. Copernicus is the most ambitious Earth Observation programme to date. It will provide accurate, timely and easily accessible information to improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security. This initiative is headed by the European Commission (EC) in partnership with the European Space Agency.
ESA coordinates the delivery of data and is developing a new family of satellites, the Sentinels, specifically for the operational needs of Copernicus. The EC, acting on behalf of the European Union, is responsible for the overall initiative, setting requirements and managing the services. These services fall into six main categories: land management, the marine environment, atmosphere, emergency response, security and climate change.
This video explains what the Sentinels represent within Copernicus.
These satellites remind me of Unicorns… don't know why.
Copernicus from the astronomer who promulgated that Earth is moving around the sun.
Am I the only one who's thinking about "Thunderbirds" while they're going through list of Sentinel satellites? 😉
On a more serious note, I really hope that Google. Bing and other mapping providers can take the topological data from these satellites and use it to improve the quality of their maps, for the benefit of all their users.
thank you ESA! The idiot Republicans who control funding of US space programmes would not allow this.
Hey esa. I am glad of the long lifetime of these missions as i feel often alot of expensive, still operating tech and potentially useful tech is being abandoned in space when its done what its been wanted to do and i feel perhaps theres is opportunity in keeping older missions alive or even perhaps selling them, to gain some funds back and help other less advanced space companies or at least continue to collect data that could be of use
Sentinals.. Yeah let''s give our weather baloons a new name!
For a cost of 3 billion dollars, plus, 3 billion more 2x a year for the magnificent maintenance they receive subsidized by your government. They are better than the blackbird, while traveling at such speeds, with soo much space debris, only in 2016, they had a small particle take out a solar panel. Can I please get the brand of those nice super solar panels, so that I don't continue to get plunder by my electric company, while you folks play with toys with a nice salary.