ESA – Sea-level monitoring satellite tv for pc unboxed

Sentinel-6B is ready to hold ahead the legacy of Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich – the primary Sentinel-6 satellite tv for pc, launched in November 2020. The Sentinel-6 mission serves because the world’s major reference mission for radar altimetry to increase the continual report of sea-surface peak measurements that started within the early Nineteen Nineties by the French–US Topex Poseidon satellite tv for pc after which by the Jason collection of satellite tv for pc missions.

With sea-level rise excessive on the worldwide agenda, quite a few organisations have labored to make Copernicus Sentinel-6 the gold-standard reference mission for extending the report of sea-surface peak measurements – delivering knowledge with higher precision than ever earlier than.

Although a part of the European Union’s household of Copernicus missions, Sentinel-6 is the product of remarkable worldwide cooperation, involving the European Commission, ESA, NASA, EUMETSAT, and NOAA, with extra assist from the French house company CNES.

As effectively as mapping the peak of the ocean floor to know long-term change, Copernicus Sentinel-6 additionally offers knowledge for sensible ‘operational’ functions. For instance, the mission measures important wave peak and wind pace, knowledge which are used for near-real time ocean forecasting. In truth, satellite tv for pc altimetry offers probably the most complete ocean sea-state measurements accessible at this time.

The Sentinel-6 satellites carry an altimeter that works by measuring the time it takes for radar pulses to journey to Earth’s floor and again once more to the satellite tv for pc. Combined with exact satellite tv for pc location knowledge, altimetry measurements yield the peak of the ocean floor.

The satellites’ instrument bundle additionally consists of a sophisticated microwave radiometer offered by NASA. Water vapour within the environment impacts the pace of the altimeter’s radar pulses – and subsequently estimates of sea-surface peak. The superior microwave radiometer accounts this water vapour to make sure that measurements are correct.

Following its voyage by ship from Germany to Texas within the US after which carried by truck to California, the Copernicus Sentinel-6B satellite tv for pc arrived at a NASA facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California in August.

And now, after being saved in NASA’s services on the Vandenberg Space Force Base, the satellite tv for pc has been transferred to the Astrotech Space Operations processing facility the place it was unpacked and is now being rigorously inspected.

Over the subsequent weeks, the satellite tv for pc will endure numerous useful assessments, photo voltaic array checks, and might be fuelled for its life in orbit.

The satellite tv for pc will then be positioned contained in the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket fairing prepared for liftoff in November – the precise launch date is to be introduced within the coming weeks.