The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched the first satellite belonging to a dedicated programme that will monitor the Earth in unprecedented detail. Launched place--Europes spaceport in Kourou in French Guiana. Measuring 2.8 m long, 2.5 m wide, 4 m high and weighing 2300 kg, Sentinel-1 will orbit the Earth at an altitude of 693 km. The craft carries a synthetic-aperture radar system that will study the Earth constantly throughout the day and night and in any weather. It is expected to observe the Earth for seven years, by which time the other six Sentinel craft should have launched. These include Sentinel-2, which is expected to launch next year to monitor vegetation, soil and water, and Sentinel-3, which will monitor sea- and land-surface temperatures. Copernicus was previously known as the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme (GMES). Later missions such as Sentinel 4 and 5 – which will both study the atmosphere – will not be individual satellites but rather instruments that piggy-back on weather-monitoring satellites launched by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 18:45:36 +0000
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