Copernicus and the dance of the Sentinels

The family of Sentinel satellites in European Commission's Copernicus program plays a vital role in Europe for environmental monitoring. There are today 12 series of ESA satellites in the family: Sentinel-1 provides radar data continuity with ERS and Envisat; Sentinel-2 and -3 are dedicated to monitoring the land and oceans; Sentinel-4 and -5 are designed for meteorology and climatology missions; and Sentinel-6 provides operational continuity with the space altimetry missions of the Jason family of satellites. Thales Alenia Space is one of the leaders in this ambitious environmental monitoring program, as prime contractor for the Sentinel -1 and -3 families (4 satellites per family), in charge of the Sentinel-2 image ground segment, and manufacturer of the Poseidon-4 radar altimeter for the Jason-CS/Sentinel-6 mission.

Regarding Copernicus Expansion, featuring 6 new missions, Thales Alenia Space will serve as prime contractor for the following 3 missions: CHIME (Hyperspectral Imaging mission), CIMR (Passive Microwave Imaging Mission) and ROSE L (L-band SAR Mission). The company will also provide payloads for CO2M, aiming to measure global anthropogenic CO2 emissions and will provide the radar altimeter IRIS for CRISTAL (Polar Ice and Snow Topographic Mission).

©Thales Alenia Space/Master Image Programmes.